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No battery No radio
A radio with flat batteries is useless. The purpose of this
page is to give a brief overview of battery types their pros
and cons and how to get the best from them.
Disposable or Rechargeable ?.
For occasional radio use good quality disposable batteries
have some advantages. They stay charged for years when not
in use where rechargeable batteries loose their charge in
storage over a period of a few months.
Disposable batteries are expensive in comparison to rechargeables
so rechargeable batteries are the only choice for radios used
daily.
Rechargeable batteries can usually be recharged at least
300 times if they are well looked after. Their capacity is
lower, but long term running costs are very low. Recharge
costs amount to no more than a couple of pence.
Choosing Disposables
For two-way radios the only type of disposable batteries worth
considering are Alkaline cells. They are made by many manufacturers
but choosing between makes is virtually impossible as none
display the capacity on their packaging.
Although alkaline batteries are more expensive they have
the following advantages over other disposable battery types
.
- High power to weight ratio
- High power to volume ratio
- Long shelf life (re-chargeables batteries have a tendency
to self discharge)
- Work better at low temperatures. (Batteries work by chemical
reaction. Cold slows them down.)
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(Rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries share many of these characteristics.)
Choosing Rechargeables
At this time the main choices are between Nickel Cadmium
(NiCd) and Nickel Metal-Hydride (NiMH) batteries and Lithium
Ion Li-Ion.
Lithium Ion has the best power to weight and size ratio,
followed by NiMH and then NiCd
 Battery
Information on Wikipedia
Disposal
Discarded cells should be left at your local waste recycling
centre or returned to us for recycling, not thrown into everyday
rubbish.
Battery Maintenance
Click here to read about getting
the most from your rechargeables
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Getting
the best from your batteries