[NJARC] Cheap Source for 6V lantern batteries:

[Joe Cro N3IBX]

Greeting All,
                   I stumbled across something yesterday that may interest 
some of our club members that use 6V lantern batteries, or look for a 
economical source of them other than 4ea. 1 1/2V "D" cells in series tied 
together.

If you have a "Dollar General" store in your locale, they sell their own 
version of a common 6V lantern battery for the reasonable sum of only $2 
each. That's a good two to three times cheaper than I've found them anywhere 
else! The Dollar general part # is: 4R25. These aren't alkaline batteries, 
but (even though marked "xtra heavy duty"), are your run of the mill general 
purpose type of unit used to power a lantern that requires 6VDC.

I purchased one, tested it, and it seems to work as well as any other type 
of battery like this I've used in the past. The problem for me up until now; 
has been recovery of the initially high cost of purchasing them. Call it 
"CHS", for "Cheap Ham Syndrome", or whatever, but I cringe at spending a $5 
bill or so just to power the filaments in one of my radios that have that 
requirement.

I, and lots of others, have used this type of battery as a filament voltage 
source for powering 01A's and other 5V tubes in homebrew receivers. How many 
01A's you can power from one is anybody's guess, but thought I'd pass the 
information along just the same.

Here's to more economical  sources of "A" batteries to keep our filaments 
glowing in vintage receivers!

Joe Cro N3IBX