{"id":351,"date":"2015-07-11T20:14:21","date_gmt":"2015-07-12T04:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.communistech.com\/?p=351"},"modified":"2015-07-11T20:14:21","modified_gmt":"2015-07-12T04:14:21","slug":"yaesu-vx8-dr-powered-using-rc-lipo-batteries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.communistech.com\/blog\/yaesu-vx8-dr-powered-using-rc-lipo-batteries\/","title":{"rendered":"Yaesu VX8-DR powered using RC LiPo Batteries"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_3388\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I recently passed my Radio Amateur License Exam here in Canada. For my first radio I wanted something easily portable that I could take with me any where. I purchased a Yaesu VX8-DR<\/a> handheld transceiver or HT for short.<\/p>\n

The battery life of the standard pack (1100mAh 7.4V) and high capacity pack (1800mAh 7.4V) are commendable at about 4-6Hrs, well until you press the PTT and start chatting. At 5W power output, they get used up pretty quickly.<\/p>\n

Another factor in this is that you cannot transmit while plugged in with the supplied charger. It just doesn’t put out enough current. \u00a0So the what’s the answer? I have a cupboard full of RC LiPo at 11.1V and 14.8V nominal ranging from 2200mAh, 5200mAh and more. That should do the trick nicely.<\/p>\n

NOTE: I should mention I haven’t tried the 4S (14,8V,16.8Vmax) batteries yet. VX8-DR<\/a> specs say 12Vdc is ok. Car batteries are 13.8V when charging, so not sure if the regulator can take the higher voltage of the 4S.<\/p>\n

I simply cut the cable of the supplied charger, and solder a XT60 connector inline. Now I can connect any of my RC LiPo batteries and save the power in the built-in battery packs when i need to go truly mobile. The RC batteries can also charge the internal battery, which is great. Maybe i need to enter some QRP contests \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

The other benefit, as I live in a earthquake zone,\u00a0that in\u00a0an emergency, I should be able to run the radio for at least 72Hrs with no need of a recharge… awesome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently passed my Radio Amateur License Exam here in Canada. For my first radio I wanted something easily portable that I could take with me any where. I purchased a Yaesu VX8-DR handheld transceiver or HT for short. The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-tip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communistech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communistech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communistech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communistech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communistech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.communistech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":356,"href":"https:\/\/www.communistech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions\/356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communistech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communistech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communistech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}