Dear John,

Try ordinary alkaline batteries and make note of the date on which you
install them. See for yourself how long they last. If you feel that the
time you get from those batteries vis à vis their price is
satisfactory, well, you have your answer as to which to use.

In my Grundig Satellit 800 (a "battery-eater") I use C. Crane NiMH "D"
size batteries - they are rated 9000 mAH. They cost $9.95 each here in
the US which is rather high now. (When I bought them several years ago,
they were "the only game in town.") There are others which have ratings
up to 11000 mAH and which cost less. C. Crane's Quick Charger, which
can charge all sizes of NiCads and NiMHs, sells for $39.95 in the US.
There are now other chargers which are at least as good and possibly
better for the same or less money. You'd have to check what is
available locally for you.

I use rechargeable batteries in the Satellit 800 because the cost of
regular alkalines would be exorbitant. I own two sets of six "D" cells
for that radio as well as two chargers so I can recharge six batteries
at one time.

While my Sony ICF-SW7600GRs are easy on batteries, nonetheless I use
"AA" NiMH rechargeables in them also.

In the long run, rechargeables are generally less expensive than
primary alkaline cells. (A notable exception to that rule is the GE
Superadio - it goes a VERY long time on regular alkalines. Also my old
- 1969 - Hitachi KH-1108S gets three-and-a-half to four years from a
set of four alkaline "D" cells but I do not use that set for long
periods of time - generally just to quickly listen to the local MW news
station to hear the headlines and the business report.)

Do not even consider NiCads. They are a "pain." I used them for years
and, when NiMHs came out and I tried them, I went over completely to
using NiMHs. There are just too many advantages of NiMHs over NiCads -
the most notable being virtually no "memory" effect. You can charge
NiMHs any time you like and, while they should be "conditioned"
(discharging completely and then recharging) once in a great while, in
general that annoying step can be skipped.

I hope the above has been of some use to you and, as always, I wish you
the very best of luck.

Joe

P.S. I'm waiting to see if Redsun introduces an RP-3100 model - Jay
Allen states that they will be doing so soon and this radio will be
exactly the same as the RP-2100 but will incorporate a synchronous
detection circuit. The mouth waters ...

John Plimmer wrote:
I recently got a Redsun RP2100, the users view of which I previously posted
on this group.
It has the facility to use rechargeable batteries, something of which I know
nothing about.
It will charge these batteries for twelve hours.
I want to use "D" cells but don't know which rechargeables to buy.
My local store can order me NiCad's or NiMH - I don't know anything about
that.
What's the difference?

Also there are different numbers like 1500 or 2500 which seems to mean how
long they hold the charge.
I would be grateful for advice from you highly knowledgeable fella's as to
what I should buy.
As they seem to be very expensive, perhaps I should just stick to ordinary
batteries and forget about the rechargeables?
--
John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 32 s, East 20 d 07 m 32 s
RX Icom IC-756 PRO III with MW mods
Drake SW8 & ERGO software
Sony 7600D, GE SRIII, Redsun RP2100
BW XCR 30, Sangean 803A.
GE circa 50's radiogram
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop, POARDT Roelof mini-whip
http://www.dxing.info/about/dxers/plimmer.dx