Handheld Vhf And Recharging

[Florida R227]

This threads a few weeks old but I thought I'd add my 2 cents. Lithium batteries do have a much longer charged shelf life but they still need to be used and drained down and then recharged. Leaving any battery on a charger full time will cook the battery over time but the cheaper the charger the quicker that happens. Smart chargers will fast charge a battery to full power and then go to a trickle charge mode. If the radio is off, this charge exceeds the natural drain of the battery and will slowly overcharge it. Also, do not let a lithium battery sit fully discharged for very long(and I mean a few weeks) or you will never get it charged again. I'm a radio guy and buy a couple hundred portable radio batteries a year for my job and have more experience with that than I care to have. The batteries that tend to last the longest are the ones that are used and charged every single day regardless of type. The other plus to lithiums are that they tend to pack more power than other styles but they have some major drawbacks to me as at some point they just won't take a charge anymore. With other types they just don't last as long once they get some age on them. The problem with using AA battery trays in a handheld is that they usually don't supply enough power to produce more than one or two watts on transmit and will drain very quick if you do alot of transmitting. To me the best bet would be to have a lithium battery that you maintain by discharging and recharging once a month or so and then to have a AA battery tray with some Lithium AA batteries on hand. I have an Icom M1V with a lithium battery that I take good care of and it finally gave up the ghost after four years which is pretty good. But in it's prime, I could leave it on for two days straight just monitoring things and it would still have juice left in it. You won't get that from Nicads. Unfortunately they don't sell battery trays for all that many of the higher end handhelds as they want to sell you $80 lithium batteries. Sorry for the long post but I hope this is informative.