[Elecraft] Simple Way to Determine Condition of K2's Battery?

[n9jxy at att.net]

Is there a quick & easy method of determining the approximate condition of a 
K2's KBT2 battery? Until recently, when I decided to sell my TS-850 and make 
my K2 #478 my main station rig, it has almost always been in storage 
(approx. 7-1/2 yrs!), and I've not been very good at maintaining the 
battery.



 When I got it out to keep it out, a few months ago, I was shocked to 
discover the battery voltage only measured a little over 7 volts. At first, 
I was going to just pitch it and buy a new one, but since I seldom use it 
anyways, I thought I'd see how well I could revive it. I initially hit it 
pretty hard with my power supply, then have had a constant 14.2 volts on it 
since (13.9V. on the K2's display), except for a couple intentional 
discharges. Now, when I remove power with the current draw at approximately 
300mA, the displayed voltage reads 13.1 volts. Five minutes later it reads 
12.4 volts, and it takes another fifty minutes to drop down to 12.3 volts at 
300mA. That tells me the battery still has plenty of life in it for my use, 
but I'm curious if there's a fairly simple way to determine just what 
condition it's actually in.



By the way, something I did this morning, was shut the power supply off for 
a half day. When I turned the rig on after having no applied charging 
voltage for six hours, the displayed battery voltage read 12.7 volts.



Thanks!



Denny    N9JXY