[Elecraft] make a portable battery pack at home

[Charles Greene]

At 04:06 PM 4/10/2002 -0400, Brien Pepperdine wrote:
>HI. I was emboldened and impressed by the presentations at Atanticon
>last weekend,  so with
>the QRP to the Field event coming up at
>the end of April, I'd like to make a "AA" size battery pack for my K1
>(would work for other rigs too probably).
>
>I see the K1 pack from Elecraft uses eight batteries, but I wonder if a 10
>pack might be better if I am putting together a battery pack from the
>plastic holders I can get at the local electronics supply store..
>advisable?
>
>AA alkalines are 1.5 volts fully charged new from the package but I think
>discharge in use quickly to 1.25 volts and then down lower.
>So ten alkalines would be 15 volts to start with but quickly lower, which
>according the web page specs is
>OK for the
>K1 and K2. (Actually, my reasoning SEEMS to make particular sense if
>making an external homebrew pack for the K2, since it wants 10 volts and
>8 alkaline batteries can give that and a bit for a while, but 8 1.2 volt
>rechargable cells cannot;
>the K1 can live OK on 9 volts though I think).
>
>NiCad and NiMH batteries are
>nominally about 1.2 to 1.25 volts
>but supposedly maintain that level pretty much throughout their discharge,
>which means a nominal 12 volt package if ten batteries are used.
>(only around 9.6 volts if 8 cells are utilized).
>
>Have I missed something? - aside from two more batteries cost that little
>bit more and ten cells do not fit a standard  commercial 8 cell
>recharger/float maintainance charger.
>(I would use my intelligent Battery Plus float/trickle recharger that
>keeps a motorcyle battery alive when not used).
>
>See you at/near the water's edge for QRPTTF on April 27.
>I will have a 40 m. dipole and a variant (my quick n' dirty kludge) of the
>St.
>Louis pocket vertical (now that I have found a local kite tubing supply
>source) to try out.
>
>I will not be portaging a "Ron 'Ninja Mule' Polityka 52#-Special
>Backpack" however (Atlanticon joke).
>
>http://www.fix.net/~jparker/norcal/qrpttf02/qrpttfrules.html
>
>Brien,


I have a 10 pack holder I got from Mouser, and of course, 10 NiMH batteries 
for it, for my K2 and another brand rig.  The only drawback is that the RS 
charger I have will only take 8 cells at a time.

73, Chas, W1CG