RJ wrote:
When I got the digital camera,
I had to get the NIMH batterys and the charger.
then I said;
Why buy alkalines any more ?
and I switched my radios to NIMH batts too.

Now here's food for thought;
A pair of alkalines measure 3.1 v
A pair of NIMHs measure 2.4 v 2.6 v

Would the lower voltage affect the performance
of any of these "3 volt radios" ?

????


rj
My ATS 909 hates NiMH's in fours ...demands fully capable alkalines's
voltage. Alkalines voltage drop after use to a certain figure that
normally would be useable in most radios and the sangean shuts down.

I got a six cell battery holder and ran it to the external battery
connector. And six high capacity NiMH AA's work the radio fine. it
seems to tolerate a 1.2v overvolt because it's heavy current demand
drops that voltage to a 6 volt figure pretty quickly

Yodar

Is there some reason why one wouldn't use lithium batteries? More
expensive, but they certainly last a lot longer than alkalines in most
uses...and nowadays they come in AA size.

Bruce Jensen

That's a good solution. It also keeps you from having to stress the
weak battery hatch as much....a part waiting to break. For mine, I
bought a 4-D cell holder and I use that via the DC input jack when I go
battery power. The 909 / 398 is a nice radio in many ways, but for
the battery drain and the "deaf whip." I have always considered this
to be a lousy portable for those reasons but a nice mini-desktop with
external antenna and AC power.

There may actually be value in going this way. Depends on if the %
life improvement exceeds the cost difference of course. One thing to
know about lithium....they pretty much provide full power and then
crash on you. Alkaline, on the other hand, tends to die gradually. It
is harder to know when you are losing power with lithium...however
performance holds together better during its life.

On 2 Dec 2005 08:40:29 -0800, "wavetrapper" wrote:

There may actually be value in going this way. Depends on if the %
life improvement exceeds the cost difference of course. One thing to
know about lithium....they pretty much provide full power and then
crash on you. Alkaline, on the other hand, tends to die gradually. It
is harder to know when you are losing power with lithium...however
performance holds together better during its life.

My devices have battery icons of some kind. I replace my NiMHs at
50%. If the device has 2 positions like my Sony Walkman I replace
when the icon shows half a battery. If it's 4 vertical bars like my
Zen Nano I change at 2. For my old camera and my Casio TV, I always
carry a freshly charged spare set.

Yeah,,, metinks I wants to by me a camcorder and one of them special
camcorder lenses from www.advanced-intelligence.com company in
Thailand so I can see them wimmins naked under their clothing.I am a
normal auld fart bastid.Give me a d..n break!
cuhulin

wavetrapper wrote:

There may actually be value in going this way. Depends on if the %
life improvement exceeds the cost difference of course.

Even if the price/performance swap from alkaline to lithium were a bit
less than even, I'd consider the relief from changing batteries so
often in the 398 a big plus of the lithiums.

One thing to know about lithium....they pretty much provide full power and then
crash on you. Alkaline, on the other hand, tends to die gradually. It

is harder to know when you are losing power with lithium...however
performance holds together better during its life.

Just as long as the rapid end-fade doesn't cause an electronics
problem, I could live with that.

Thanks!
Bruce Jensen

If you don't mind the added bulk....try a 4-D or 4-C external battery
pack. I like it a lot. Never have to go inside the radio to replace
batteries. the battery holder, cord and plug at RS is less than $10
in total I think. Being a cheapskate, one thing I have started doing
is transferring my semi-dead D cells out of flashlites over to the 398
power pack. Not enough juice left for a strong flashlite beam...but
enough to power the radio for a good while.