Special Batteries

[N4KVE]

Years ago at a Hamfest I found a guy who was selling special MX batteries. They had no charging contacts on the bottom & were used by the Dept of Forestry. They could sit on the shelf for years & years & yet when you put them on the radio, they would last a long time. Made for firefighters in the forest where there is no electricity for drop in chargers. Just use them & throw them away. A friend asked me if these type batteries exist for more modern radios. Anyone know who might sell them? GARY N4KVE

[Pj]

For MX? Not sure. You can get one time use batteries for modern radios as well. I have one from one of the major producers that a memeber gave me. It was normally sealed and used in part of a disaster unit.

[N4KVE]

The MX was just an example. My friend is looking for this type of battery for a current radio. Specifically "Black Box" radios. He's got lots of them & needs these batteries in case there is no electricity to use a charger. GARY N4KVE

[Tom in D.C.]

At one time Motorola sold alkaline 15-volt packs for the HT220 and MT500, but except for
AA cell packs for a few other radios (the current XTS comes to mind) I've never seen any
others, though I've probably missed some of them. "Throwaway" batteries with a very long
shelf life would probably be alkaline units. Perhaps the growing popularity of mobile chargers
has made the need for these kinds of units decline.

[Satelite]

Hello :
I still have some of the one time use batteries from motorola for the MT1000 portable.
And as Tom in D.C. already stated they were the alkaline batt cells.
The NTN4870B one time use MT1000 alkaline battery is 15 volts dc rather than 10 volts dc as normally found on the rechargable batt packs.
It was manufactured 2003 -33rd week and still shows a full chg.
Satelite

[Will]

The MX was just an example. My friend is looking for this type of battery for a current radio. Specifically "Black Box" radios. He's got lots of them & needs these batteries in case there is no electricity to use a charger. GARY N4KVE

I do not remember them offering a AA battery pack for the Black Box radios. The single drop-in chargers that come with the Black Box radios work from 12 volt electrical power. You need the vehicular power cord.

Most of today's hand-held radios draw too much current to be able to use AA battery packs.

[Tom in D.C.]

Will,

The XTS alkaline holders put the cells in a series/parallel configuration so
you get your nominal 7.5 volts DC at double the current capacity of the
standard alkaline cell. Makes for a really Klugey and huge handful of radio
when it's all put together.

However...

Last year in the process of setting up new radios for the sound system work
at Redskins' home games we did some alkaline vs. nicad comparisons and the
alkalines were definitely inferior in their ability to supply high current on transmit,
so much so that the Vertex 180s we were using were reduced to low-power
radios. This has to be why Motorola wires the XTS alkaline packs in series-
parallel.

Regards,



Regards,

[jackhackett]

They make Lithium primary batteries for some radios, these are non-rechargable lithiums that have a long shelf life (10 years).

http://www.multiplier.com/content/pdf/M ... teries.pdf

[Will]

Tom,

I have seen the alkaline battery holders for some radios and the Jedi ones are as you say.... big and clunky. I use my charger in my truck off of 12 volts to recharge Jedi batteries in the field.