[Elecraft] Charging gel cells for my K2 with regulated PS???

[Steve Kallal]

Thanks for the replies about charging my 18 AH gel cell. I was a little
impatient waiting on my 750 mA charger get the battery topped off. I left it
on yesterday evening when I stepped out and came back 2 or 3 hours later.
The charger's green light was on.

I did some reading on gel cells, in addition to the replies. It seems that
my power supply, an Astron RS-35A, wouldn't have charged the battery any
faster anyway. My $30 charger from HRO will allow me to tickle charge the
battery and prevent overcharging. But I think I'll check out the 1 A charger
from A&A Engineering. Anaheim is very local to me and their chargers have a
good reputation in the ham community.

One responder said it would take 24 hours for that charger to fully charge
my battery. 750 mA / 18 A = 24. I guess that is where the 24 hours comes
from. My charger is a Deltran Battery Tender Junior from HRO. HRO
represented it as coming from powerwerx.com. Powerwerx has an larger model,
1.25 A. Its too bad HRO didn't have that model in stock.

I do wonder about using the gel cell with my KPA100 option. I don't need to
run 100 watts by any means. But 10 watts is a little too low for me. I
wonder how the 18 AH gel cell, a Power Sonic, will work and last with the K2
at about 30 watts. I'd been tickled to death to have had 30 watts when my
power was out. I don't know if the KPA100 looses efficiency at 30 watts
versus 100 watts. Just curious.

Again thanks for the comments! I still welcome more.

73,

Steve N6VL