Hi all,
I’m going to visit my brother in september. I looked on a map and there are a lot of 10 points summits close to his home. (FL/VO). So i decided to take my station with me.
BTW, funny SOTA rules, you can reach some 10 points summits by car, and 3 of them around 900-100 m asl in a 0.6 mile circle ! Here in Corsica i have to hike during dozen of hours to reach the only 4 we have above 2500m…
I will be travelling by plane on a lowcost company, so i’m limited in space and weight.
I asked my brother if he had a small battery and he replied that he has several “AUDEW jump starters” like this one.
They have several ouputs from which 2 are like concentric 5.5 mm. My bro measured 15.9 V on them.
Can someone confirm the type of connector (ext and int pin diam.) and the voltage that looks quite high to me.
I want to prepare an adapter for my SW-3B transceiver and will probably have to reduce the voltage.
BTW, if this works, it could be a rather cheap and versatile power source for SOTA , the beast is given for 16800 mAh !
Tried something similar from Lidl with limited sucess - the plug in device has some circuitry to prevent reverse polarity connection to a car battery, but it also seems to limit its use as a 12v source. (It was trying to sense some residual voltage from a flat battery, and on seeing nothing turned itself off) I “rearranged” it bypassing the circuitry and it worked. The capacity was a bit disappointing as the 8000mAH was at a very userul 3.4v, so only 2000mAH at 12v. It has since died - probably due to not being charged for a while and the cell voltage dropping. Ended up with a hobbyking solution. The device I am describing is similar, but not the same so you may have more sucess. 73 Paul
;Hi Patrick!
I just tried my “Rugged Geek” jump starter on the FT-100D radio a few minutes ago.
It works off the big jump start alligator clips. But as was mentioned earlier, it has to
see a load before that part of it will turn on. When I first hooked it up, it was like searching
for a load. I put a small load (light bulb) across it and it turned on. Then I turned the radio on
and it works! But the voltage is not so high, around 12.5 volts and dropping off after leaving
the radio run for a while. Of course this FT-100 is not a low-current device, draws a couple
amps just to receive and a lot more on transmit.
The bottom line is: It did work!
Hi all,
Thanks for your advices.
My brother has used this jump starter several times to start his or others cars, and everyone has been impressed by the efficiency.
So, the builtin battery seems to be quite powerful.
A cigarette lighter adapter is provided to power what you need. So, i think these outputs don’t have a load sensor. Perhaps does the big alligator clips ouput have this sensor ?
I’m only concerned about the size of the connectors and the high output voltage measured.
Worst case, i make a cigarette lighter to banana plug adapter with a few shortable diodes to drop the voltage a bit… This can always be helpful…
As the battery type is almost certainly LIPO, which charges to well over 16v when fully charged, this battery type should only be used to power nominally 13.8v equipment when used with some reliable and foolproof method of dropping the voltage to below 15v, preferably 14v, though the exact upper limit for most radios is either not stated or is unclear.
There are many threads on this forum discussing methods of dropping the voltage to something suitable for radios, but do consider some over-voltage protection as well. If the regulator or inverter fails for some reason, the radio is in danger of being damaged. Most radios apply the DC supply voltage to the final amplifier devices continuously, ie it is not switched by the main power switch.
In general LIFEPO4 battery types are safer with radios, a 4 cell battery charges up to 14.4 volts and that’s quite ok for all radios I know of.
Be informed, take care of your expensive radio, a cheap battery pack is not worth using if it puts a $500/1000/1500+ radio at risk.
Note, I used the word “foolproof” above, not to denigrate anyone, but trust me, many odd things happen when you are on a windy summit, red and black wires can be confused, batteries connected to batteries, radios connected to the wrong battery etc. Use the calm environment of your shack to plan a safe and obvious set of connections, batteries and radios so that when you are tired, cold, wind-blown and only want to get off the hill, your concentration lapses won’t be expensive ones.
Hi Patrick,
About your travel to FL/VO, you could meet Bob F5HTR who lives there near the Basel Airport, and have SOTA activity together.
Bon séjour dans les Vosges, Gerald
I don’t know about that one specifically, but many of the jump starter pack also have 12V outlets for running camping equipment. Have a look campervan forums and the like for info on how well they work. Most starter packs will not work on a completely flat battery, although some have an override function that circumvents that safety feature.
Hi all,
Thanks for all infos and proposals…
For my home activity, i have all what i need. My problem is to adapt myself to what i can get on site without carrying a battery + charger in the plane.
AA batteries could be a solution, even if expensive. I think alkaline AA batteries are about 2100-2500 mAh “only”. But i don’t have a 8 AA battery holder.
When flying for work to go on fieldwork, I tend to carry a lot of things equipment with batteries and cables etc and I just keep all the cables, batteries and smaller electronics in a drybag that I can pull out and put in a tray in security. Equipment comes out as well on a separate tray. That way it’s not all crammed in a bag and hard for them to see properly.
Since doing this, the most excitement I’ve had was with two Traveller’s Notebooks that have a small lead disc clamping down on some elastic bands. I hadn’t expected that (didn’t know it was lead for starters)!
