[Elecraft] Extremely light KX1 portable external power supply

[Bruce Prior]

I was rooting around a local drug store last night and discovered a new way 
to provide the KX1 with an extremely light portable external power supply.  
I spied a 6 V Duracell� 28L lithium battery.  I found that each 28L is half 
the length of an AA cell and very slightly smaller in diameter.  I trundled 
over to a RadioShack and found a single-cell AA holder (RadioShack 
#270-401A).  Back in the drug store, I bought two of the 28L cylinders.  
They're not cheap:  I had to pay $8.99 apiece.  I loaded the single holder 
with both 28L batteries in series.  Since their diameters are just a shade 
smaller than AA cells, I inserted a single layer of the strong fiber paper 
used for a credit card holder.  (I've forgotton the proper name of the 
stuff:  it's also used for Priority and Express Mail envelopes.)  Now the 
two 28L's are nice and snug.  The output voltage measures 12.55 Vdc;  the 
KX1 showed slightly less than 12 Vdc on its internal voltmeter.  I've 
forgotten the exact figure, and my KX1 is out of my hands for a week or so.

Could the 28L's be used inside the KX1?  Well, yes, with five conducting 
dummy spacers in the other five AA slots it should work fine.  Another 
radical approach would be to rewire each of the six internal AA slots in the 
KX1 so that they were in parallel instead of in series.  Buying twelve 28L's 
would be very expensive.  I'll stick with my simple external version, thank 
you!
72,
J. Bruce Prior N7RR
Kairos Research
853 Alder Street
Blaine, WA  98230-8030
360-332-6046

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