A couple years ago, I got a couple Motorola
talkabout walkie talkies. FRS. They came with
internal nicad pack, which I thought was pretty
nice. And a charge stand for convenience. I
spent a few minutes on Ebay, and Froogle,
looking at nicad packs.

What I find, is t hat the nicad packs tend to be
either 700 mA, or 800 mA. Which is about right,
for nicad AA cells. They run six to eight dollars
(and up) plus shipping.

I'd been using Raovac NiMH cells, which aren't
mA rated on the package. I can't remember the
cost, but it's less than two bucks a cell. One web
site say they are probably 2,000 mA. Which is
essentially three times the capacity of the nicad
packs. The Rayovacs also have the advantage,
I can spot and replace one bad cell, instead of
having to replace the three pack.

At the moment, I'm thinking I'd be better off, to
use loose NiMH, and use a NiMH charger for
the loose batteries. Rather than drop in charge
stands. For occasional use, only alkalines make
sense. They don't go flat, like nicad or nickel
metal.

The exception might be if the museum does the
fund raiser again, and we have the chance to use
FRS a couple hours a day, and charge all night.

Or maybe a church event, where we are doing
parking. What experiences do others have to add?

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

In ,
Stormin Mormon typed:
A couple years ago, I got a couple Motorola
talkabout walkie talkies. FRS. They came with
internal nicad pack, which I thought was pretty
nice. And a charge stand for convenience. I
spent a few minutes on Ebay, and Froogle,
looking at nicad packs.

What I find, is t hat the nicad packs tend to be
either 700 mA, or 800 mA. Which is about right,
for nicad AA cells. They run six to eight dollars
(and up) plus shipping.

I'd been using Raovac NiMH cells, which aren't
mA rated on the package. I can't remember the
cost, but it's less than two bucks a cell. One web
site say they are probably 2,000 mA. Which is
essentially three times the capacity of the nicad
packs. The Rayovacs also have the advantage,
I can spot and replace one bad cell, instead of
having to replace the three pack.

At the moment, I'm thinking I'd be better off, to
use loose NiMH, and use a NiMH charger for
the loose batteries. Rather than drop in charge
stands. For occasional use, only alkalines make
sense. They don't go flat, like nicad or nickel
metal.

The exception might be if the museum does the
fund raiser again, and we have the chance to use
FRS a couple hours a day, and charge all night.

Or maybe a church event, where we are doing
parking. What experiences do others have to add?

Well, one thing: Batteries should aways be changed in sets for the longest
and most reliable service. Putting one new battery in with two used
batteries serves to do little but pull the new battery down to the level of
the other two, whether they are series or parallel connected. I've proven
that a few times with my digital cameras. Now I only use rechargeables and
charge all 2 or 4, depending on the case, at the same time. In the long run
the rechargeables turn out to be the least costly anyway. The up front cost
is more, but they last a lot longer thru a lot of charges.

HTH,

Twayne


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