Leisure battery query

Hi Every hope your all well,
Just a quick question about Leisure batteries for Static mobile work.What am I looking for when buying one,What price,What power etc etc.
Thanks Tom.
26 CT 4029

Tom is depends on what gear your going to be hooking up to the battery.
A 100AH battery on paper will give you 5hrs if your running a 100w rig consuming 20Amps, the reality is different.
You have to assume your duty-cycle is not going to be 20amps constantly, you will be listening most of the time, so a lower current is being drawn, about 1 to 1.5 amps.
The golden rule is Not to totally discharge any battery, that's a sure way to kill it.
So roughly 4hrs operating a 50% duty cycle, listen/transmit at 100w for a 100Ah battery, have a look on amazon for a guide price wise.

Regards Ady

Cheers Ady, I’ll definitely go for the 100Ah battery.
Amazon and EBay will be checked tonight after work.
Thanks for the advice.
Tom.
26 CT 4029

Hi Tom. Just throwing this one out there as something to think about. It's not a leisure battery, but after seeing and hearing other people use them for portable work I went this route because of the small size and weight, and that it can be charged up more times. The block in the middle of photo..


It's a car jumper pack. Next to it is a jumper port to cig lighter socket adapter that I plug the radio lead into. They come in lots of different capacities and prices. Mine's only 14Ah and at lower end of the prices. It's got me out of the house for an hour or two a few times with half the charge remaining after. Definitely wouldn't be an all-nighter battery and wouldn't last long with a burner on though.

Thanks SangueG, That’s definitely another option well worth considering.
Cheers Tom.

Got 2 of them somewhere doing nothing.
180A ? Will have to root them out they might be of use to somebody on here.
Got me thinking now as just cleared one car out and don't remember seeing one in there.

Hi Tom,  after many years of SOTA Ops, I feel I can throw my twopeneth in.  I had a FT897 mainly for 2m ssb to carry up along with all my coax, antennas (albeit they were home-brew and light) so for most of us walking up a long steep Hill or Mountain, weight against length of time for battery drain was what we had to be mindful of. The heaviest I could carry comfortably was a 12Ah Slab, this would easily give me 4 hours at 20 watts output during a pile up of contacts.. 

I am mindful you are looking at Static Mobile, so for me that was a 45Ah Battery but there using an Icom 706 MK2G at 30 watts on HF Bands, that would last me approx 6 hours before I had to drop power to about 15 watts. Hope this helps?

Good luck Tony

Hi Tony,Thanks for the advice and I’ve seen some of this’d hill top if not mountain top photos you posted,Now thats SOTA ops.Thankfully I don’t think I’ll have to much of a worry about lugging all my gear and antenna up a side of a steep mountain to start with as I’ll just take kiddie steps.Walk before you can run and all that.lol
4 to 6 hours of battery life should be more then adequate adequate for my needs.Firstly I’ll have a shop around and do a bit of homework first on what’s available and the pro’s and con’s.
Thanks again BEARFOOT.
Tom. 26 CT 4029

i have a leisure batt to a 170 amp hour and it was not cheap, its big and i could not lift it took two to lift it, and i bought a
charger for batt, and its handy in case there a break in the power and its good with a good kicker in the car

Hi Guys,
Have you thought of this sort of thing.
It is an emergency starter kit for a car.
It also has a built in cigaret lighter socket and a torch.
Very portable.
12V 7Ah battery.
Available from Amazon.



MM.   26-CT-4242.

Martin
They are a 17AH battery in them not 7AH so plenty of run time.

Sorry Alan,
Hand and eye coordination not up to scratch LOL!!!

MM.   26-CT-4242.

excuse me being late to the party, how did you get on with the jump pack .? i have a 12ah one and wondered how long my crt9900 on half power would last on that.

Hi. Quick calcs on using a 12Ah on a 9900 result in a couple of hours use with 50/50 transmit/receive actions with it on half output power. But real life usage can add other factors which might reduce or lengthen usage time.

(edit) sorry, a bit wrong, did that rushing out the door to take wife to work. 12Ah / 6A (approx current drain at half power as takes 12A on full power) = 2 hours. 50/50 transmit/receive actions would obviously extend that time as receive isn't going to draw as much current. Real life usage will still effect majorly, including the ambient temperature. Should still be good for a couple of hours though.

Hi SangueG,Spot on with that answer for CT3829.I recently purchased a 75Ah leisure battery for static mobile work and I think you may have answered the same question for me concerning hours of use to drain time etc etc.
Your definitely right in saying it’s all a rough estimate due to circumstances with the battery condition and ambient temperatures.I’m not going to pretend I know what I’m completely talking about as I’m a Mechanical engineer and don’t ever touch the Zappy Zappy stuff..lol
So 75Ah at a 1 amp draw is 75 hours drain time?
So the equipment I’m using the leisure battery with is 10 amp so that’s 7.5 hours and I’m reading on the paperwork it’s not advisable to run it down past 50%.So that’s now 3.25 hours.My god this battery is more hard work then the Missus..
After 3 hours I’ll switch it off to keep her happy.
Cheers Tom.
26CT4029

Tom
Don't forget that 3.5 hours is constant so it will last you longer when you get to use it.
Unless you don't stop for breath lol.

I also looked into this only a few days ago with going 'portable' in mind, so No 'Leasure' Batteries due to heavy weight and unefficient charge times, but a ""LiFe-Po"" battery is the complete answer.   please look them up and see the advantages for yourselves.

I've been using a 120Ah leisure battery in the back of the car when static-mobile  for a year now.  It's been brilliant, and not let me down once!  I bought the recommended charger from the supplier (Sunshine Solar) when I bought it, just so I have a single point of contact should things go wrong.  I made some 50A cables to connect it to my SS9900 and B550p in my go-box with properly hard-core Anderson connectors, and it's been faultless.  For portable working I've bought a Tracer 10Ah LiPo pack,  which I'm itching to try, but the weather hasn't been favourable yet!!

I been using a Bison battery box with a Probat 90 amp leisure battery. Both you can find on eBay. Bison battery box will set up back £60, and a further £60 for a Probat leisure battery.

Bison battery box I would highly recommend; as it has standard cigarette lighter adapter for running a CB or HAM radio, and the USB charging port also comes in handy charging for charging up the Baofeng.

Model Maker.  I had a similar emergency starter several years ago.  Unfortunately, I forgot the golden rule of lead acid batteries; I left it for a couple of years without charging it and the battery totally died.  Something to remember.