[Scan-DC] BC396 Battery Life

[ka3jjz at netscape.com]

Doug this has been discussed quite a bit elsewhere - I think the Uniden forum on RR, and maybe the 396 group. Batteries shouldn't die after an hour or two. I use 2700mah Maha Powerex, and I usually get somewhere around 8 hours or so (I haven't timed it recently, frankly). I rarely use the backlight, and I keep the volume down to about a 6 or so. In the car I have a miniature FM transmitter, so I pipe the audio into the stereo. 

You really need to use the hi-cap cells on this radio, no doubt about it. Recharging in the radio is a waste of time. It's not well controlled, and there have been several reported instances of the batteries getting cooked. Another aggravation is that you will start getting the low battery beep around 3.5 volts or so. The cells still have a lot of juice left in them; why it considers this to be a 'low battery' is beyond me, to be honest. 

There are many battery chargers on the market. You should use a separate charger that can condition the batteries, not just recharge them. I have a charger from Thomas Engineering, but it's pure junk - it's already cooked one set, and well on it's way to ruining a second. I wish I had kept the receipt and shipping box (damn), I would have returned it for a refund. Maha makes very good ones, and I even have heard of folks picking something up at places like CostCo.

Doing some homework on these chargers will save you money and aggravation in the long run.

73 Mike

links editor,Capitol Hill Monitors
Utility Monitoring Central
Wiki Administrator, HF Forum moderator, Radioreference.Com 

--- oldsdoug at hotmail.com wrote:


All,

I'd be interested to hear "reports from the field" re battery life on the Uniden BC396 - mine only seems to last about an hour (no more than two) when running on batteries, even when starting with supposedly a full charge.  Granted, I do have it set so that the backlight comes on whenever it receives a transmission, and haven't tried it without this setting, but it also seems to take a long time to fully recharge - like 24 hours.  It's done this since it was new (not sure how long I've had it now, I guess more than 6 months but less than a year).

I wondered when it was new if the batteries that came with it were old or no good or something... the guy at Scannermaster did offer to replace them but I never followed up on it as it seemed to start working better after a couple of charges.  I'm going to try to pick up another set this weekend... I think they are lithium, but not sure.

Regards,

Doug

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