![]() ![]() In addition, I’ll also limit discussion to batteries that can be purchased of-the-shelf rather than addressing homebrew options. And rather than get bogged down in the nuances of battery chemistries, we’ll focus on the end result––the pros and cons of each battery type, and how practical they might be for your field application. To keep the scope of this article in check, I’m also going to focus only on rechargeable battery options. By “portable,” I’m talking power options for those of us who load a backpack or carry case and head to the field. In the following article, let’s take a look at some portable battery power options for your radio gear. Not only have radios become more efficient in operating off of battery power, but we now have so many affordable and lightweight rechargeable battery choices on the market. Taking radios into the field is so much easier to do today than it was in, say, 1985 or earlier, because we have so many more options for powering our gear in the field. This doesn’t include hours and hours of SWLing (shortwave radio listening). In 2020, I easily spent a total of 100 hours outdoors with my radios activating a total of 82 sites for the Parks On The Air (POTA) program alone. I’ll admit it: I’m a massive fan of field radio. I may buy another Battery Tender in the future to eliminate the extra step.The following article originally appeared in the April 2021 issue of The Spectrum Monitor magazine: I use the one charger/maintainer to keep both units fully charged by switching from one unit to the other every few days. A battery left hooked up to a Battery Tender will charge up as usual and then switch to a float mode that keeps the battery topped up but does not overcharge it. This puts out 800 mA and is completely automatic. To keep the battery boxes charged up I purchased a Deltran Battery Tender 800 model. The cigar lighter style connector was eliminated due to a lack of space. With the two batteries inserted into the ammo box vertically back to back there was just enough room for the voltmeter with switch and the USB connection unit along with the two Power Pole connectors. Two 7 AH SLA batteries wired in parallel did fit so that made my choice easy. As it turned out, the 18 AH SLA battery would not fit. I purchased one and went to my local Batteries Plus to find a suitable battery. After I built the first unit, all of a sudden, the plastic ammo cans were available at Harbor Freight. The second unit I built used the ammo can that I searched for before. The digital voltmeter was wired with a switch in the circuit so that the meter could be shut off to save power for the attached radio. To this trio I added two sets of Power Pole connectors on the same end. For this project it was better to remove the units from the molded panel and install them individually on one side at one end of the enclosure. I used the triple unit which consisted of a voltmeter, a pair of USB outlets in one housing and a cigar lighter type outlet. Quicksilver Radio Products (sells a series of terminal devices that come singly, or in pairs or trios of connections and devices mounted in a molded panel to make installation a snap. With the security of the battery accomplished, I turned my attention to the connectors that allow the energy of the battery to be used. The harness prevents the battery from pushing the bottom plate of the enclosure out. Because the enclosure was never intended to carry the weight of such a battery, I enlisted the help of my eldest daughter to build a harness out of one inch webbing to surround the enclosure and provide a handle for carrying the package. The enclosure was sized to contain an 18 AH SLA battery. At the time there were none for sale anywhere, so I used a ABS enclosure purchased from a company called Pac Tec. ![]() ![]() When I first decided to build a portable battery pack to power my FT-817ND, I looked for an ammo can made of plastic. A Couple of Simple Battery Packs for Portable Ops. ![]()
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