Batboard

Hey All,
Is it harmful to my radio if I monitor or even talk on it if it is in the charger? I would never EVER have it plugged in. I have one of the moto chargers with the angle making it convenient to monitor radio traffic on my desk. Just wanted to see if it is harmful to have the radio turned on in the charger even though it is not plugged into the wall? How about txing?

With the radio simply sitting in the charger, unplugged, you should be safe.
Never run any portable while charging, as you introduce charging problems and life reduction with said battery as the charger will see a reduction in voltage/current, and start the charging process, and if this is done on a regular basis, you will have a dead battery in short order, and possibly one that is leaking as well.

The contacts on the battery prevent reverse-draining, and usually this is also done to prevent the contacts from shorting out on debris in carry cases and belts(keys, coins Etc..).

Sure, as long is the charger is not functional (AKA: NOT plugged in), you'll be fine.

As a funny side note, in most of the offices @ the PD (police Sgt.'s office, Traffic Unit's office, etc.) most of them I notice, just leave thier radio ON in the charger, WHILE it's charging. And they wonder why they blow though so many batteries lol

Ah, sometimes you luck out. I have XTS's dedicated to monitoring certain channels in my office 24x7x365, sitting in an Impres charger, with an Impres NiMH battery. They've been there for two years or more. Occasionally, the green light blinks for an hour- but normally it stay solid. Tossing a battery every few years is worth it for me to not have a bunch of mobile with power supplies all over the place. Also, the Motorola travel charger is designed so you can transmit while charging- as does an XTVA or MTVA. Sure, you eat batteries more often- but I don't really expect more than the warranty life anyway.

I've seen some weird aftermarket Jedi charger where it somehow prevented issues when a radio was left on for RX purposes...and no it was not W&W...

What if you don't care about the battery and just want to use it as a glorified scanner?

At work we have a radio (MTX-838) that is sitting turned on in a charger. It has been this way for at least 4 years (with the same battery) and hasn't been used for TX for as long as I've worked there. One day I was curious to see how long it would last turned on not in the charger. It lasted about 10 hours before it started beeping, so I would say no serious damage took place, however I would NOT use that battery 'in the field' as I would imagine once some TX cycles were thrown in there, battery life would quickly be depleted.

IOW, you should be fine for RX purposes and the odd TX, however I wouldn't rely on the battery being of much use for any period of time outside the charger.

An impress battery and impress charger would be the way to go if your going to use it for RX purposes. At 90% or better (flashing green light) the battery/system is designed to allow the radio to be on while it maintains and charges the battery.

Using conventional batteries and chargers will kill the battery. Once you really kill them, they wont hold enough of a charge to turn a radio on while in the charger.

resqguy911 wrote:Ah, sometimes you luck out. I have XTS's dedicated to monitoring certain channels in my office 24x7x365, sitting in an Impres charger, with an Impres NiMH battery. They've been there for two years or more. Occasionally, the green light blinks for an hour- but normally it stay solid. Tossing a battery every few years is worth it for me to not have a bunch of mobile with power supplies all over the place. Also, the Motorola travel charger is designed so you can transmit while charging- as does an XTVA or MTVA. Sure, you eat batteries more often- but I don't really expect more than the warranty life anyway.

Wow. Thanks for all the help everyone. I found this to be interesting - I did have an interest in buying a motorola car charger, but I did not know if I could transmit with it or have it on at all. Does anyone know the part number?

RLN4884B
http://www.motorola.com/Business/US-EN/ ... 884B_US-EN

Is there such thing as a dummy battery, which regulates power directly from the charger and supply it to the radio, without actually charging any cells? Just an idea

pks wrote:Is there such thing as a dummy battery, which regulates power directly from the charger and supply it to the radio, without actually charging any cells? Just an idea

Is this what you were thinking? http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... CDAQ8wIwAw#

I think what he wants is a empty battery shell so the radio can sit in the charger and work like a desktop scanner.

Got it. Hmmm, that'd be interesting. Good weekend project. What I'm still hesitant about is finding a charger (like that motorola car charger) and txing with the radio in it. I cant find any info on if txing with it in the charger is okay. Obviusly you can have it "turned on" and in the charger...

mes90265 wrote:Got it. Hmmm, that'd be interesting. Good weekend project. What I'm still hesitant about is finding a charger (like that motorola car charger) and txing with the radio in it. I cant find any info on if txing with it in the charger is okay. Obviusly you can have it "turned on" and in the charger...

As was said, the ONLY charger that is specifically designed so that you can (ONLY RX) have your radio on while in the charger, is the Impres changing system. TXing with your radio in the charger is a VERY bad idea.
All the car adaptors (AKA "Battery Eliminators") for the XTS are aftermarket (I have no idea how well they work), but they are the only devices that you can actually replace the battery, and just use that in your vehicle, without having to worry about draining your radio battery (for both TX and RX).

Motorola also makes the Travel Charger as well (as was stated above). I've never used a travel charger, so I don't know if you can TX while the radio is in the charger or not. Reading the Motorola website, it does say you can still use the radio while the battery is charging. BUT, did they mean use it as in just recieve, or both transmit AND recieve. Good question.