[HomeBrew] I am a Happy/FRUGAL Ham, soooo....

[David]

I Am A Happy/Frugal Ham...
November 29, 2012

Recently I picked up my old 2M Kenwood TH-22AT HT and it would not take
but a slight charge. Well, it has had about 14-20 years of intermittent
use!

Actually, I had an extra duty battery pack for it, too, which was
completely dead.

I popped the packs open to see what I could do...
--I identified the batteries (size-wise). I think one pack had 5ea. 2/3's
"A" size and the other had 5ea. 4/5th's "A" size.

I found a place online which has the batteries in small qty's at a
reasonable price. I emailed asking if I could order by phone w/ my credit
card. They gave me a phone number. The 10 NiCad Batts were about $3 each.
So, that's how I got the new batts ...by FC Mail for about $4 postage.

Batts were about $3 each.

Cautions:
1. This is a work of love and is not "easy", but a higher-level DIY Ham
should be able to figger it out and succeed with the transplant (also
called a "Re-Pop" of the pack (re-populating))

2. Order the Batts with "tabs" spot-welded onto them,... soldering
directly to the cells will shorten their life dramatically!

3. I don't know if this is important, but... I could have had higher
mA hour batts in NiM Hydride or perhaps Lithium, but stayed with the NiCad
because of the original and 'dumb' Kenwood wall-wart charger (that's not a
slam on Kenwood).

You may find other companies, but this is the one I used:
BatteriesInAFlash.com in Nevada
Email = sales at batteriesinaflash.com
BIAF Sales = 702-248-2423

Happy Frugalling ! !

-- 
David B.
W7DBH, Mobile in Oregon, etc.