powering R75 with a battery
 

Do any of you guys run your radio equipment on battery power? I was just
considering this approach as an alternative to the noisy house mains. Would
like something I could use permantly inside that can be recharged from house
current. Does anyone have any suggestions? Is this a feasible idea?


-Brian

Brian wrote:

Do any of you guys run your radio equipment on battery power? I was just
considering this approach as an alternative to the noisy house mains. Would
like something I could use permantly inside that can be recharged from house
current. Does anyone have any suggestions? Is this a feasible idea?

-Brian

I don't know what the current drain is on your R75, but a few people have mentioned running Drake R8's on car batteries. They charge them with trickle chargers.

My "portable" 7030+ system has two pairs of NIMH battery packs designed for RC cars. They give me about 9 hours of listening on a charge. But the 7030 draws very little power for a tabletop.

One advantage of a battery system is you'll be ready to listen during power failures - when the noise level is extra low because nobody in the neighborhood is using gizmos that generate RFI.

"Mark S. Holden" wrote:

Brian wrote:

Do any of you guys run your radio equipment on battery power? I was just
considering this approach as an alternative to the noisy house mains. Would
like something I could use permantly inside that can be recharged from house
current. Does anyone have any suggestions? Is this a feasible idea?

-Brian

I don't know what the current drain is on your R75, but a few people have mentioned running Drake R8's on car batteries. They charge them with trickle chargers.

My "portable" 7030+ system has two pairs of NIMH battery packs designed for RC cars. They give me about 9 hours of listening on a charge. But the 7030 draws very little power for a tabletop.

One advantage of a battery system is you'll be ready to listen during power failures - when the noise level is extra low because nobody in the neighborhood is using gizmos that generate RFI.

If you want to do that sort of thing get a 'deep cycle' battery, rather than just an ordinary car battery.

dxAce
Michigan
USA

I run my R-75 on deep cycle batteries during DXpeditions. It works just
fine, and provides, many, many hours of operation.

I recommend using a battery box to contain whatever battery you choose. It's
not worth the risk of a ruined floor or carpet!

If your house mains are noisy, are you positive that the noise is entering
through the AC line cord? It's very likely you're picking it up direct via
the antenna. If so, a battery won't help the noise coming in through an
antenna.

Guy

"Brian" wrote in message
link.net...
Do any of you guys run your radio equipment on battery power? I was just
considering this approach as an alternative to the noisy house mains.
Would
like something I could use permantly inside that can be recharged from
house
current. Does anyone have any suggestions? Is this a feasible idea?


-Brian

If your house mains are noisy, are you positive that the noise is entering
through the AC line cord? It's very likely you're picking it up direct via
the antenna. If so, a battery won't help the noise coming in through an
antenna.


Yeah, I get zero noise when the mains are shut off. How have you connected
your receiver to the battery, is there some kind of converter for this?

On Tue, 09 Nov 2004 22:10:18 GMT, "Brian"
wrote:

If your house mains are noisy, are you positive that the noise is entering
through the AC line cord? It's very likely you're picking it up direct via
the antenna. If so, a battery won't help the noise coming in through an
antenna.


Yeah, I get zero noise when the mains are shut off. How have you connected
your receiver to the battery, is there some kind of converter for this?


No converter required, just an appropriate connector. Not sure of the
size as I was feeling like truly stimulating the economy and ordered
the Icom 12V cable with connector. Hook it directly to the batter
and you're set. dxAce is right about the deep cycle battery, they
are designed for use under load and being drained half-way or so on a
regular basis, a series 24 (typically around 80 amp hour rating) would
be sufficient and give 40+ hours of radio time before you'd need to
consider recharging the battery. Another option is to get a trickle
charger and just leave it on - except when using the radio as it would
be a noise source.

Howard

Brian wrote:

Do any of you guys run your radio equipment on battery power? I was just
considering this approach as an alternative to the noisy house mains. Would
like something I could use permantly inside that can be recharged from house
current. Does anyone have any suggestions? Is this a feasible idea?


-Brian






Go for the deep cycle marine battery. I have been using hem since the
late 1980's on DX'peditions.
Yes a battery box is a good idea..I use one all the time.
A trickle charger works well but of late I have been using a small solar
panel to keep the battery up to full power. It is attached all the time.
My Drake R8 and ICOM ICR-70 both run well off the battery as do some
accesaries such as my Quatum loop and my MFJ phaser. This year I
purchased a MFJ 12 volt power bar with 8 sets of jacks. I could run up
to 8 things at once but as of now just the 4 listed above with no
problem at all.

--
73 and Best of DX
Shawn Axelrod
VE4DX1SMA

Visit the AMANDX DX site with info for the new or experienced listener:

http://www.angelfire.com/mb/amandx/index.html

REMEMBER ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN HEAR FOREVER

The Axelrods wrote:

Go for the deep cycle marine battery.


Be careful here. many (most?) marine batteries are the victims of
fraudulent advertising. They are not deep cycle.

It's like the 17 inch monitor with the 15.1 inch view area, or the
Sears 5 horsepower electric motor that runs on 12 amps 120 volts.


http://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Bat...le%20Batteries


http://snipurl.com/aiwk



mike

On Tue, 9 Nov 2004 19:43:05 -0600, m II wrote
(in message Jmekd.140710$9b.60969@edtnps84):

The Axelrods wrote:

Go for the deep cycle marine battery.


Be careful here. many (most?) marine batteries are the victims of
fraudulent advertising. They are not deep cycle.

It's like the 17 inch monitor with the 15.1 inch view area, or the
Sears 5 horsepower electric motor that runs on 12 amps 120 volts.


http://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Bat...rine,%20and%20
Deep-Cycle%20Batteries


http://snipurl.com/aiwk



mike

From what has been said over the years, the best battery is (actually are
iirc they are 6v) the golf cart batteries.

The suggestion made when we were discussing this was go out to 2 or 3 golf
courses and see exactly what brand/type they're using.

Also, I wonder if it wouldn't be worthwhile to buy a couple of them ($20 or
so) and see how long they'll last. Just because they won't do a great job of
onercoming inertia doesn't mean that they can't do an excellent job of
pushing (comparatively speaking) electrons into radio gear.

Solar should recharge just fine. The brand name I've seen rated best is
"Kyocera". A guy here has done a /lot/ of comparisons but he stopped cold
after getting his first Kyocera because he didn't see any reason to keep
looking.


Gray/Mississippi

Gray Shockley wrote:

Also, I wonder if it wouldn't be worthwhile to buy a couple of them ($20 or
so) and see how long they'll last. Just because they won't do a great job of
onercoming inertia doesn't mean that they can't do an excellent job of
pushing (comparatively speaking) electrons into radio gear.

Very true. Even if they don't do too well in a golf cart, they may
last for another fifty years if powering a radio.

I've been hoping to get very lucky and find some swapped out phone
company wet cells. I had one when I was a kid. They had a clear case,
with a built in hydrometer. Six volts and monster plates with NO
sediment or visible sulphation.

I'd kill to have a few dozen of them now. I recently got 160 watts
worth of solar panels that could really use the storage space

Until I hit the jackpot, I'm using US Batteries 2200 225 amp hour
models, which are similar to the Trojan golf cart batteries. These are
all mid range quality, falling between car batteries and TRUE deep
cycle (read $$$$$) batteries. It's a compromise.



mike