Tony, I guess the beauty of the 897D is the ability to load it with the 4500mAh batteries as opposed to, say, carrying an 857 with a slab or two rattling around in the bergen which is my usual load-out.
The lad and I popped up Shining Tor late last Saturday night under the cover of darkness and clag with the 28ft portable mast and 9ele but that was more a case of awkward than heavy.
In reply to M1DTJ:
I’m with Steve, the 857 is lighter and more practical - I have a padded inside pocket in my rucksac that seems tailor made for it, but I wish the slabs were lighter!
I guess the beauty of the 897D is the ability to load it with the 4500mAh
batteries as opposed to, say, carrying an 857 with a slab or two rattling
around in the bergen which is my usual load-out.
One word Lithium Polymer.
OK that’s two words!
Yaesu FNB 78 NiMH cell for FT 897 costs £120.95
My LiPO cell with same capacity costs £ 13.00 (inc p&p from Hong Kong)
Yaesu CD 24 4hr charger for FNB 78 costs £109.94
My LiPo 5hr charger costs £ 5.78 (inc p&p from Hong Kong)
My 897 is definitely staying put as the base station rig I bought it to be! I’m not taking that up mountains! Too big, too heavy. I can work the world from a summit with my 817 on 5 watts from the internal 2.7Ah battery, so that will do for me. I usually do take a SLAB, but the internal is more than sufficient for most stuff.
I was even working across Europe on 40m yesterday morning, on 1 watt with a flat battery! Never underestimate what can be done with QRP - and without any kind of external battery.
As Andy says, go LiPo. They are so light, I’m always tempted to carry a spare, but it’s totally unnecessary. A couple of 4AH 3 cell LiPos provide power for around 4 hours running 20w out on SSB.