wrote
I was wanting to use the marine battery I have but someone else posted
a negative experience with the fumes ruining part of their house and
their own health. It scared me a little.

Starting with a new battery, I have used a 12v marine deep-cell with small
float-charger to power a 25w VHF transceiver for over two years. For short
periods, this will handle 100w xmit on an HF rig that draws 20-30amp. When a
charger is connected to a battery, adequate ventilation must be provided,
and the smoking lamp is "out". There is nothing wrong with using an
emergency backup battery as part of normal (indoor) operations. It will
provide hundreds of hours of monitoring and several minutes of low-power
transmit w/o requiring a charge.

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, Virginia

Get a 13.8 vdc from radio shack. or turn up your 12 to 13.2

wrote in message
ups.com...
When looking for a power supply for my Alinco dr-590, what type of
power supply would I look for? The radio says 13.8 v dc but if I get a
12 volt power supply will it put out the same wattage at the radio?

Jack Painter wrote:
wrote
I was wanting to use the marine battery I have but someone else
posted
a negative experience with the fumes ruining part of their house and
their own health. It scared me a little.

Starting with a new battery, I have used a 12v marine deep-cell with
small
float-charger to power a 25w VHF transceiver for over two years. For
short
periods, this will handle 100w xmit on an HF rig that draws 20-30amp.
When a
charger is connected to a battery, adequate ventilation must be
provided,
and the smoking lamp is "out". There is nothing wrong with using an
emergency backup battery as part of normal (indoor) operations. It
will
provide hundreds of hours of monitoring and several minutes of
low-power
transmit w/o requiring a charge.

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, Virginia

How do you "vent" a batter thay is constantly hooked up to a trickel
charger?

wrote

Jack Painter wrote:
wrote
I was wanting to use the marine battery I have but someone else
posted
a negative experience with the fumes ruining part of their house and
their own health. It scared me a little.

Starting with a new battery, I have used a 12v marine deep-cell with
small
float-charger to power a 25w VHF transceiver for over two years. For
short
periods, this will handle 100w xmit on an HF rig that draws 20-30amp.
When a
charger is connected to a battery, adequate ventilation must be
provided,
and the smoking lamp is "out". There is nothing wrong with using an
emergency backup battery as part of normal (indoor) operations. It
will
provide hundreds of hours of monitoring and several minutes of
low-power
transmit w/o requiring a charge.

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, Virginia

How do you "vent" a batter thay is constantly hooked up to a trickel
charger?

First, mine is not constantly connected to the charger. When it is, I have a
window open and a fan circulating air in the station. Battery vents in an
automotive or outdoor environment often become sealed-shut. This is not the
case with a clean battery used indoors-only. A very small amount of moisture
is sometimes visible on the surface of the battery around the vents
following use of a powerful charger. This has never been my experience from
the trickle-charger, however. Keep the battery surfaces clean, verify that
the vents exist, then leave them in their normal (not loosened) condition
and all is well. Not all batteries are vented and I would avoid using any
charger indoors in that situation.

Jack

Jim -

How politically correct!

In the military it is called "Getting $12,000 worth of education shoved
up your rear end a nickel at a time".

On 25 Jan 2005 08:22:59 -0800, wrote:

When looking for a power supply for my Alinco dr-590, what type of
power supply would I look for? The radio says 13.8 v dc but if I get a
12 volt power supply will it put out the same wattage at the radio?

THe owner's manual of most radios will give you a range of voltages;
for example, one of my Icoms recommends 13.8 volts, plus or minus 15
percent. Check your manual, if you have it, or try to get a copy from
one of the internet places that sell such things.

bob
k5qwg

On 25 Jan 2005 11:12:20 -0800, wrote:

So you are saying it wont matter?

I was wanting to use the marine battery I have but someone else posted
a negative experience with the fumes ruining part of their house and
their own health. It scared me a little.

Hi Don,

Well it seems in the interim, you got good advice as to battery use in
the shack, and shabby advice about writing. ;-)

For the record, my batteries are actually sealed lead-acid Hawker
Energy (Gates) Cyclon BC Cell (25 AH) and not cheap - but then they
are rock solid. I went this direction knowing full well most
batteries die because of one cell failure - this way I can replace the
dead cell. My buddy used a deep discharge battery that was over
floated (probably 15V) and he rarely minded the water level (too bad
too) as he boiled it down. There was some obvious corrosion near the
battery (sitting open to the environment, and he's a heavy smoker) but
nothing widespread (his battery sat in a plastic tray on a wooden
shelf).

During normal use at field day, my batteries lasted many hours. When
the rig began to sputter, I swapped one out to charge from the car. I
also monitored the voltage, and rarely ran below 11.5 Volts. Even
with a "quick" charge, I would always current limit it to about 5A.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

I was wanting to use the marine battery I have but someone else posted
a negative experience with the fumes ruining part of their house and
their own health. It scared me a little..............

I've been using batteries in the house for 15 years or longer. Never a
problem,
and I've never noticed the fumes. You only get heavy fumes when really
heavily
charging, or when overheating, from overcharging. I use a 12/2 amp
automatic
charger to keep the battery up. It's on 24/7. The only real drawback to

batteries is the corrosion that builds up. It's no big deal really, but
it does
have to be cleaned off from time to time, and also the connectors will
need to
be cleaned from time to time. That crud is highly corrosive, and
probably would
eat/stain carpet, etc...So keep the battery on some kind of pad, if not
in a
battery case. I have an inverter for emergency 117v use...Have used it
quite a
few times when the lights go out do to powerline problems, blown
transformers,
etc..I'm still on the air, plus can use a lightbulb, watch TV, etc..MK

P.S. When using batteries, always use the proper safety
precautions...Batteries
can explode. Don't unhook, hook hot radios, chargers, to cause a spark.
Turn
them off first, hook up, and then turn back on. When I hook up my
icoms, I have
to actually unhook the cable from the back of the radio, if I don't
want a spark.
The finals are always hot on the icoms, and will draw current/make a
spark, even
with the radio off. So I'll hook it all up, and plug the cable to the
706 last.
My IC-730 is the same way. Blowing up a battery in the house could be
nasty...
But saying that, I wouldn't let that scare you...I've never had a
problem...You
can always keep it in a battery case, under a table, etc, for extra
protection.
MK

Richard Clark wrote:
On 25 Jan 2005 11:12:20 -0800, wrote:

So you are saying it wont matter?

I was wanting to use the marine battery I have but someone else
posted
a negative experience with the fumes ruining part of their house and
their own health. It scared me a little.

Hi Don,

Well it seems in the interim, you got good advice as to battery use
in
the shack, and shabby advice about writing. ;-)

For the record, my batteries are actually sealed lead-acid Hawker
Energy (Gates) Cyclon BC Cell (25 AH) and not cheap - but then they
are rock solid. I went this direction knowing full well most
batteries die because of one cell failure - this way I can replace
the
dead cell. My buddy used a deep discharge battery that was over
floated (probably 15V) and he rarely minded the water level (too bad
too) as he boiled it down. There was some obvious corrosion near the
battery (sitting open to the environment, and he's a heavy smoker)
but
nothing widespread (his battery sat in a plastic tray on a wooden
shelf).

During normal use at field day, my batteries lasted many hours. When
the rig began to sputter, I swapped one out to charge from the car.
I
also monitored the voltage, and rarely ran below 11.5 Volts. Even
with a "quick" charge, I would always current limit it to about 5A.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC


Is it bad to leave a charger hooked up to the battery permanently. Mine
is a 12/2 with automatic operation.

wrote in message
ups.com...

Richard Clark wrote:
On 25 Jan 2005 11:12:20 -0800, wrote:

So you are saying it wont matter?

I was wanting to use the marine battery I have but someone else
posted
a negative experience with the fumes ruining part of their house and
their own health. It scared me a little.

Hi Don,

Well it seems in the interim, you got good advice as to battery use
in
the shack, and shabby advice about writing. ;-)

For the record, my batteries are actually sealed lead-acid Hawker
Energy (Gates) Cyclon BC Cell (25 AH) and not cheap - but then they
are rock solid. I went this direction knowing full well most
batteries die because of one cell failure - this way I can replace
the
dead cell. My buddy used a deep discharge battery that was over
floated (probably 15V) and he rarely minded the water level (too bad
too) as he boiled it down. There was some obvious corrosion near the
battery (sitting open to the environment, and he's a heavy smoker)
but
nothing widespread (his battery sat in a plastic tray on a wooden
shelf).

During normal use at field day, my batteries lasted many hours. When
the rig began to sputter, I swapped one out to charge from the car.
I
also monitored the voltage, and rarely ran below 11.5 Volts. Even
with a "quick" charge, I would always current limit it to about 5A.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC


Is it bad to leave a charger hooked up to the battery permanently. Mine
is a 12/2 with automatic operation.


I don't know what other's opinions will be regarding this, BUT - mine is NO.
I know a guy who fried a H.F. radio twice by doing that. Maybe he didn't
have it connected altogether properly, but the charger fried his radio twice
and it cost him a few bucks to get it fixed both times. The first time, he
didn't say what caused the failure. The second time, he figured out it had
to be the charger. Since he quit using the charger at the same time - once
the set was repaired - again, the set has worked fine. And yes, he still
uses the battery and a charger. He just disconnects the charger before
using - now.

L.