Hello Group,
I'm rather tired of burning through alkalines on my portable sets (not
to say that the 7600G & GR aren't easy on batteries) and I'm
interested in switching to rechargeables. I would appreciate any
recommendations. Not surprisingly my concerns are longevity and
reliability. Are NiMHs the way to go? I'm using NiMHs in an AOR
8200MkIII since they were supplied with the unit. Usage time between
recharging is not as impressive as I would have hoped for. But then
I've been spoiled by the Li-ion battery in the R20. Any
recommendations are most welcome.

The latest Ni-Mh have an impressive power and capacity. Just as an example
I've seen some AA 1,2 v with 2900 ma/h of capability. If you find some of
these (even through the internet) you go "green" andsave lots of money. I
think their power has since a couple of years surpassed the most powerful
among alcalines, so there's no point in keepeng to use these last ones. Move
ahead and try the ni-mh with confidence.
73 de ik8vwa

Francesco L. wrote:
The latest Ni-Mh have an impressive power and capacity. Just as an example
I've seen some AA 1,2 v with 2900 ma/h of capability. If you find some of
these (even through the internet) you go "green" andsave lots of money. I
think their power has since a couple of years surpassed the most powerful
among alcalines, so there's no point in keepeng to use these last ones. Move
ahead and try the ni-mh with confidence.

There are two types of ni-mh batteries. The older ones which have a low
internal resitance, and the new higher internal resistance types. The
main differences are the old type has a much higher output current, but
discharges about 1/3 of it's charge in a week. They are good for high
current devices, such as anything with a radio transmitter in it
(cell phone, HT) or a large microprocessor (laptop).

These batteries have a relatively low capacity and about a 300-400
charge cycle life.


The other, newer type are sold as "green" batteries. They take about
a year instead of 3 weeks to discharge, so they are usually shipped
partially (80%) charged. Here they are repackaged by a company called
Great Peak (GP) in Hong Kong as Recyco brand. The cells are actually
made by a Korean company.

These batteries have very high capacity and a long charge life,
up to 1000 charges.

Geoff.



--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM

As a person that is in the Audio Visual industry I'd look at where you
get your batteries from. Why? Well if you can buy them for some
rediculas low price then just keep buying the alkalines. It's just a
lot less fuss!!!

I say this based on the fact we use mainly 9 volters in about 6 radio
mikes on most gigs. We end up paying approx $1.50 per battery. For us
we know we can get 8 - 9 hours straight out of one alkaline battery.
As not many gigs go past this time you simply work on the fact that
each time you use a radio mike you put a fresh battery in.

See Nical Metal Hydride rechargables are the ones that don't develope
memory problems - but they are more expensive than the normal
Alkaline. They also "go flat" faster because they are still only 8.4
volts at best. So when you weigh it all up any rechargable and
especially the old Nic Cads when fully charged aren't really
delivering the volts the mike wants. Yes but it's only 20 cents of
electricy to recharge it up again! True! But it will still go flat
faster than the Alkaline as it is behind the eight ball from the
start. Then if you "kill" it by "over charging" or giving the old Nic
Cads "memory" then your economys are shot. Yes!

Seriously I'm sure the numbers work in the my favour if you do some
sums. Remember rechargables "loose their charge" if let sit too.
Factor that into your sums. You will see i'm right - a lot less fuss -
just get a big box of alkalines and keep feeding them in.

Station X wrote:
As a person that is in the Audio Visual industry I'd look at where you
get your batteries from. Why? Well if you can buy them for some
rediculas low price then just keep buying the alkalines. It's just a
lot less fuss!!!

I say this based on the fact we use mainly 9 volters in about 6 radio
mikes on most gigs. We end up paying approx $1.50 per battery. For us
we know we can get 8 - 9 hours straight out of one alkaline battery.
As not many gigs go past this time you simply work on the fact that
each time you use a radio mike you put a fresh battery in.

See Nical Metal Hydride rechargables are the ones that don't develope
memory problems - but they are more expensive than the normal
Alkaline. They also "go flat" faster because they are still only 8.4
volts at best. So when you weigh it all up any rechargable and
especially the old Nic Cads when fully charged aren't really
delivering the volts the mike wants. Yes but it's only 20 cents of
electricy to recharge it up again! True! But it will still go flat
faster than the Alkaline as it is behind the eight ball from the
start. Then if you "kill" it by "over charging" or giving the old Nic
Cads "memory" then your economys are shot. Yes!

Seriously I'm sure the numbers work in the my favour if you do some
sums. Remember rechargables "loose their charge" if let sit too.
Factor that into your sums. You will see i'm right - a lot less fuss -
just get a big box of alkalines and keep feeding them in.

My company buys alkalines by the pallet load (for real). We never send
anything out with a rechargeable, due to the cliff effect looking very
bad on live TV. That being said, I use nothing but rechargeables for my
PERSONAL stuff. Alkalines are a big disposal issue, as they cannot be
discarded in the normal waste stream.

I use Ray O Vac Alkaline batteries in everything.Except for my Gyration
Radio controlled mouse www.gyration.com I use for my computer,,,,
also my Gyration Radio controlled mini keyboard, but for that keyboard,
I use Ray O Vac Alkaline batteries.I use Ray O Vac Alkaline batteries
www.rayovac.com in my Wet TV (''Wet''?) keyboard and my Wet TV hand
held remote too.
cuhulin

junius wrote:
Hello Group,
I'm rather tired of burning through alkalines on my portable sets (not
to say that the 7600G & GR aren't easy on batteries) and I'm
interested in switching to rechargeables. I would appreciate any
recommendations. Not surprisingly my concerns are longevity and
reliability. Are NiMHs the way to go? I'm using NiMHs in an AOR
8200MkIII since they were supplied with the unit. Usage time between
recharging is not as impressive as I would have hoped for. But then
I've been spoiled by the Li-ion battery in the R20. Any
recommendations are most welcome.
My 8200 came with 1800 mAh batts; not very high capacity. I use an
external charger (the 8200 charger is not designed for NiMHs) and
Duracell or Energizer green NiMHs. These are in the 2400 mAh range,
give or take. I use the batteries in all my uncorded electronics,
except the remote controls.

On Apr 17, 8:47*am, Dave wrote:
junius wrote:
Hello Group,
I'm rather tired of burning through alkalines on my portable sets (not
to say that the 7600G & GR aren't easy on batteries) and I'm
interested in switching to rechargeables. I would appreciate any
recommendations. Not surprisingly my concerns are longevity and
reliability. Are NiMHs the way to go? I'm using NiMHs in an AOR
8200MkIII since they were supplied with the unit. Usage time between
recharging is not as impressive as I would have hoped for. But then
I've been spoiled by the Li-ion battery in the R20. Any
recommendations are most welcome.

My 8200 came with 1800 mAh batts; *not very high capacity. *I use an
external charger (the 8200 charger is not designed for NiMHs) and
Duracell or Energizer green NiMHs. *These are in the 2400 mAh range,
give or take. *I use the batteries in all my uncorded electronics,
except the remote controls.

Yeah, my '8200 also came with a set of four 1800 mAh NiMHs. According
to the manual, they require a 12 hour charge, if charged in the '8200
itself. That's a dreadfully long wait.

On Apr 16, 11:24*am, junius wrote:
Hello Group,
I'm rather tired of burning through alkalines on my portable sets (not
to say that the 7600G & GR aren't easy on batteries) and I'm
interested in switching to rechargeables. I would appreciate any
recommendations. Not surprisingly my concerns are longevity and
reliability. Are NiMHs the way to go? I'm using NiMHs in an AOR
8200MkIII since they were supplied with the unit. Usage time between
recharging is not as impressive as I would have hoped for. But then
I've been spoiled by the Li-ion battery in the R20. Any
recommendations are most welcome.

I've had excellent luck with two sets of rechargeable NIMH batteries
that came with the Degen DE1103 radio I got directly from China. I
use a relatively slow 12 hour recharger that seems to do a more
complete job of recharging than the fast charge units.

Life between recharges is directly related (obviously) to the kind of
usage. If you run the speaker that will take more than running a pair
of headphones.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread. A lot of great
information provided. Since there's an HRO in my area, I'm thinking to
go with the MAHA 2700 mAh NiMHs. The MH-C801D charger seems a good
choice: I like the 2 hour soft charge option. Since I've recently
begun scanning about a lot with the AR-8200MkIII and the GRE PSR-500,
it'll be good to have a more rapid charge than what the internal
charging processes provide on these units. Alkalines have served me
well with the Sony ICF-SW7600G & GR, SW07 and sundry Eton and Sangean
portables. But these wideband handhelds and scanners suck up a lot of
juice to do what they do. So the transition to rechargeable has become
essential. Thanks again to everyone for the many suggestions and
insights.

Junius