What I'm using for my portable HF setup, for a battery is the power station
from ham contact I think the site is www.hamcontact.com, that's seeming to
work out pretty well so far, I don't know that you'd get a long time out of
it on high power, normal use probably a few hours but if you back the power
down as I'll do with that, you can get a lot of time out of it and the
charger is built right in and can be left plugged in until you need it, no
worrying about charging it before use, just leave it charging until you want
it and it can power other things if you want.  Seems like a great idea to me
so far.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Behler" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2005 7:18 PM
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
>