not the best way to get the maximum life and longterm charge out of many
SLAs, which is why many specialized chips and charging systems have been
built, and articles available in QST and online.

I picked up a surplus UPS last weekend, with SLA specialty charger, 300
watt sine wave inverter, and battery in the case (for $3 - guys were tired
of hefting them around ;-). Even if you had to pay $20 for a surplus unit
at a computer recycling shop somewhere, you would still be ahead on the
battery, SLA specialty charger, and 12 vdc to 110 AC sine wave inverter
You just have to look at a used UPS for what it really is, subsystem wise!

One nice feature is you can route out the charging connections to other
batteries, making it easy to use the setup in an emergency with other
(larger) batteries. Last month's local sale
(http://people.smu.edu/arc/sidewalk.html) turned up a 12v 33 amp (400
watt/hr) battery ($5 IIRC). We previously picked up some 12vdc SLA gel
cells with 7.8 AH capacity, which are handy for handitalkies, QRP rigs,
ATV video cameras, and the like (again, prices were in $3 to $5 range).

I'm now looking for some buys in used generators for our club (any hints?
;-) for field day. To my surprise, Sunday's paper had a 3.5 kw AC/DC OVH
generator at Pep Boys for under $300, but I'd like something in the 1.5 Kw
or less range for easier portability for field day and on-campus emergency
power demos.

hth bobm
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************************************************** *********************
* Robert Monaghan POB 752182 Southern Methodist Univ. Dallas Tx 75275 *
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