jamulc wrote:

Thanks for the input everyone. I'll spend some time looking over the
links and mulling over the advice provided.
In any case, I realize that these gel cells are on the heavier side (I
think I had seen a 31 Amp-Hour one registering at 24 lbs or so).
That's not too much of a concern. If I had a decent place to do some
serious listening from home, I would likely not be considering this
option. But, since moving to an extremely noisy apartment building in
an urban area, I have really not been able to put the R8B to the type
of listening I used to enjoy doing (e.g. chasing the Andean stations in
the tropical bands, among other things). So, having chosen an
appropriate outside listening location and having taken care of antenna
considerations, I'm just looking for a proper means of powering. A
portable receiver just isn't quite gonna give me quite the satisfaction
that I'd get using the R8B. The issue of wear and tear on the radio
is, of course, a concern. I picked up a somewhat large, padded Pelican
case for this very reason. In any case, if I'm every gonna get any
real usage out of this radio, I've gotta get it out of my present
location.
---------------------------------------
If you are planing on doing your listening in a car/van you might want
to
consider adding a second battery(marine deep discharge) to the stock
one. Add a dual charging adaptor and you are set. And teh battery will

be rchared in your normal day to day driving. And by adding a single
jumper you can start even if the main battery fails.

See a local RV shop for details on the dual battery setup.

My wife had a VW transpoprter that we went camping in and the 2nd
battery
I added made weekend DXpiditions a joy. I hated it when the tranny
failed at
200K. I made a knock down desk for listening and we had hours of fun.
As a side benefit my wife became interested in radios, got her ham
license,
and has become a mild SWL fanatic. She has her own DX398 and I have
added a seperate antenna for her. We even have our own mini contests.
To be fair I split my main antenna to send her a feed, and use my DX398

instead of my R2000s' The winner gets to pick a nice restruant for the
victory
celibration.

You can even run fairly heavy 2 conductor to allow "remote" operation
up to 50'
to allow opeation from a picnic table or tent. Since my R2000 drew
about 1/10
of your Drake you would need heavier wire then I used and I don't have
a loss table handy.

Terry