Nick,

I have one or two of the Weston units but don’t recall just what batteries it uses.  However, 20+ years ago I was faced with a similar problem involving the Signal Corps BA-41 battery and a BC-620 radio that needed to work in a WW-II vintage Half Track.  Which of course has a 12-14 volt system.  I determined that the BA-41 didn’t have quite enough volume to hold enough 9-volt batteries to meet all of the needs so one of them I out-boarded and used the 12V system to run a Zener diode and dropping resistor.  Which wouldn’t work for the analyzer of course.  But the rest of the voltages I made up by a combination of series 9-volt batteries.  If that left some of the voltages too high, I opened the bottom of one of the 9-volt batteries and replaced the necessary number of 1.5 volt cells with copper or brass rod of the correct diameter and length, insulated by either electrical tape or shrink tubing.  Last time that I heard, the radio was still working.

Note that simply turning one of the cells over will turn the 9 volt battery into a 6 volt one.  But in practice, this would only be usable in a bias circuit that drew no current because the inverted cell would be charged by the other cells and would soon probably leak.

Robert Downs

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Nick
Sent: Saturday, April 2, 2022 14:06
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] OT -- old test gear

I have one of those in the original box including manual. Don't know in what box that meter is hiding in at the moment. A few years ago I was trying to find the right size batteries for it. Unfortunately, the device needs an odd voltage to operate - they don't make these kind of batteries any more. 

Nick  -  N0NCQ