On Nov 28, 10:09*pm, OM wrote:
On Fri, 28 Nov 2008 13:49:37 -0800 (PST), wrote:
Notebook operating time specs are very much a matter of craftsmanship.
The assumption is the backlight is on and you are running some simple
tasks. This is not the same as operating a radio via PC.

...This is true. The biggest drain on battery power isn't the CPU or
the RAM, but the Hard Drive and any USB peripherals. Hence the big
push to go to SSD Drives that consume far less power than your
standard spinning platters. Even then, the most any notebook can be
coaxed to operate hour-wise is about 9 hours, even with tweaks such as
dimming the LCD, setting standbys to 1 min, and even tweaking the CPU
to run slower.

...Hmmm. A USB Keyfob that's a full-feature SWL rig. That would be
taking miniaturization to ridiculous levels, no? :-)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * OM
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I think if you are signal processing on the CPU, it would be drawing
considerable power. It is not like editing email. You also realize
LIon batteries have both a shelf life and limited cycles. If you used
your notebook on the battery on a daily basis, you would get maybe 3
years out of the battery. After about 5 years, the battery is greatly
compromised.

This is as good as any analysis on the net:
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm

Set up something like acarsd on your notebook and see how long it
lasts on battery power. I would venture acarsd is a small fraction of
the horesepower needed to demod a radio. Most of the time acarsd is
just sampling the data and waiting for a trigger. Radio demod is a
constant load.