Hi Tom,

Personally, my choice would be a seal lead acid or gell cell battery, about
70 or 80 amp hours.  The down side to this is that they are heavy but it
would give you plenty of power for a bit  I do not like standard lead acid
batteries, even deep cycle ones since I had one turn over in my boat and had
to clean up the mess afterward.

Take care and very 73.


Kevin :)
Amateur Radio:  K7RX
Navy Marine Corps MARS:  NNN0SHS




-----Original Message-----
From: Blind-Hams For blind ham radio operators
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tom Behler
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2005 16:19
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: another question on batteries for portable HF use

Hi again, all.

If one wants to do portable HF work on battery power, with either an Icom
746, or 718, using 100 watts maximum output power, what's the best kind of
battery to buy?

People tell me that a regular car battery isn't good, since it's designed to
give out lots of power fairly quickly, after which it will immediately need
to be re-charged.

The suggestion I have heard is that a marine deep cycle battery is best,
since it gives out smaller amperages, but can do so for a longer period of
time without needing to be re-charged.

Is this correct?

Has anyone tried other kinds of batteries for portable HF work, that might
be easier to lug around?  Obviously, I can run either of these rigs on
lesser output power if needed.


As EC/RO for my county, I am just looking for  a relatively cheap and easy
source of emergency power for situations in which my 8K generator at the
house can't be or does not have to be used.

Thanks for taking this question, and vy 73 from Tom Behler:  KB8TYJ