Comms Bleg
BY Herschel Smith
8 years, 5 months ago
So I was reading the link sent by @WRSA at American Partisan, and was looking into Comms gear. Specifically I was looking at a Yaesu VX-6R.
It occurred to me that this, like so much other electronic equipment, has a unique rechargeable battery, which is nice. But we have a load of AA and AAA batteries in the house, and any Comms gear needs to be functional in a grid-down situation.
Do y’all know of high-end portable Comms gear that will function on standard batteries as well as their unique battery?
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Herschel, you can get a device called a battery eliminator that runs off any 12V source and has the ubiquitous lighter plug. It replaces the VX-6R’s battery pack. My old Kenwood HT came with a replacement AA battery pack with the same form factor as the NiCad pack, not sure if they make one for the Yaeau.
I have used handhelds by ‘Icom’ that were packaged with an AA battery trey to back up the rechargeable battery.
I never considered them a competitor to Yaesu, but was only shopping for a marine VHF.
Dammit, “tray”.
Some transceivers have a AA battery tray that is an accessory.
My latest handheld acquisition is an ICOM ID-51A which has an optional battery tray that takes three AAA batteries. The transceiver is a bit of “has all the bells and whistles” type, including built-in GPS. It has a digital mode that is very interesting, to me.
https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-015301
This is an aftermarket battery and power accessory resource I’ve used several times. They stock batteries for older discontinued radios and new ones too.
http://store.batteriesamerica.com/bp-272lh74v2270mahli-ionbatteryforicomic-51aic-31a-1.aspx
I bought the uv-5r on his recommendation and it has an accessory pack for AA. Good catch on the need.
Thanks.
@Frog,
Maybe my Google-Fu isn’t what it needs to be, but I find multiple models of the UV-5R. Could you provide linky, along with accessory pack for AA?
Well, I get a accused by friends and family that I’ve reach the end of the internet for the amount of time I spend on it.
Supposedly the one you’re looking at, this was on the Yaesu accessory tab for that model:
https://www.amazon.com/Standard-Horizon-FBA-23-Battery-Tray/dp/B000MMBYDI
I guess you could find it elsewhere too.
As for the UV-5R, some of the Amazon comments seem to elude not much difference between the UV-5RA (aka UV-5R+). So I went with the older supposedly more durable version (less shiny metal and more durable plastic):
https://baofengtech.com/uv-5r
I purchase here:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-x-Baofeng-UV-5R-Dual-Band-UHF-VHF-Radio-RF-5W-FM-Ham-2-Way-Radio-Walkie-Talkie-/291671640647?hash=item43e8fc0a47
Associated pack for it:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LAPTWE4/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&m=AA3MGRC7F9EI2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00LAPTWE4&linkCode=as2&tag=btek-20
Let me know if this helps or I went wrong somewhere.
I’ll see how they look when I get them and report back to you.
Thanks
eham.com has hundreds of reviews from owners of the various transceivers, handheld or otherwise.
Yaesu VX-6R
https://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/5013
ICOM ID-51A
https://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/10911
By the way, you can look up Concerned American and me on QRZ.com if you join and are licensed.
As others here said, many of these radios have battery packs that hold AAs/AAAs.
I’d add in another idea—with only a little bit of battery and electronics know-how, it is possible to create your own battery packs using whatever batteries are available. Not as convenient, but a worthwhile skill set to acquire.
Baofeng radios have the advantage of being cheap, but they aren’t very good.
@Mark
Yup. But I’m not sure I want to spend a ton of money if I don’t have experience or certification as of yet. Maybe just enough to get my foot in the door. We’ll see.
Go to the Yeasu website, look up your model. download brochure. They should have a AA pack that replaces the li-ion pack. Also, if its like my vx-8r, there is an aux. power plug on the side.
There exists quite a number of solar devices for charging handheld electronics. And they aren’t all that expensive. It would be wise
to invest in this technology so you can make use of electronic devices
with built in rechargeable batteries and save the AA/AAA’s etc for
other uses.