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| Operating KX-1 on Field Day 2007 |
The bane of operating portable is running out of battery power before you are ready to QRT and close the station. Now that I am using the KX-2 as my primary out and about radio, I needed to find a way to supplement the battery situation. I have two of the batteries that Elecraft sells, and they are about 3 or 4 years old and they work fine, but I thought I might start looking for some spares.
Being a frugal (aka tighfisted) ham, I was deterred when I saw the pricing for brand new Elecraft batteries.
Now I am certain they are worth every penny, as Elecraft makes nothing but good goods in my experience with them over the years. My ham brain just insisted I dig deeper and see if I could cobble some battery packs up on my own. This is what I came up with.
The Lithium Ion cell is not to be confused with the Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries. The Lithium Ion batteries used by the KX-2 and KH-1 are not smart batteries. They have no built in battery management chip (BMS), so you CAN overcharge them, and they CAN catch fire.
I found these battery packs on Amazon. They were marked about $32 for the pair. I think they are $39 now so keep an eye out.
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| https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BJ5QJ2GS |
The power connector for the KX-2 and KH-1 is a male DC plug, 5.5mm by 2.1mm in size. So I bought a bag of plugs, snipped off the 2 pin connectors on the batteries and soldered on the DC plugs.
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| https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083J24LTZ |
You need to do some thinking ahead on this. I used a piece of shrink tube on each of the two connections, and then I used a bigger piece of shrink tube to cover the connections and help to support the connection at the plug. Harbor Freight sells a fantastic little heat gun that is perfect for shrinking shrink tube, shrink wrap or softening hot glue. It runs about ten bucks.
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| Super Cheap Harbor Freight heat gun |
So basically for less than fifty dollars I was able to make two spare battery packs. I charge them with the Elecraft Tenergy Lithium Ion charger that I bought with the KX-2. Any smart charger that is acceptable for use with Lithium Ion batteries will work. Never leave Lithium Ion batteries on the charger unattended. They ARE a fire hazard.
Still cold here this week...we're promised temperatures in the 60F-70F range next week. Fingers crossed. Looking forward to getting back out in the parks and operating.
On another note these batteries run my K1, K2, KX-2, and Hilltopper rig very well, apparently they all accept the 5.5mm by 2.1mm DC power plug. Nice.
73 de KB9BVN
Brian