[QCWA] Technical Question

[Walcott, Paul]

Does anyone know the meaning of the word "Linear" as it would be applied to a storage battery?    

I'm familiar with linear amplifiers, linear IC's and linear taper potentiometers, but a "Linear battery" is a new one on me.   It was used in the context of a Motorola base station/repeater which is normally powered by AC, but reverts to a battery in the event of power failure.   One of the setup fields asks you to select "Linear led-acid,"  "non-linear lead-acid," or "NiCad."   NiCad I know about.   Lead-acid, I thought I knew about, but the "Linear" or "Non-linear" descriptor threw me.   The only other thing I can derive from the associated help screens (setup etc. is accomplished by means of a laptop computer) is that linear batteries require periodic equalization but non-linear batteries do not.

Does anyone know how to tell the difference between linear and non-linear batteries and specifically which a Sears DieHard deep-cycle/marine battery would be?

73's
Paul Walcott
WD8H
Wd8h at arrl.net