Portable power for desktop scanner???

[Archie]

Are there any portable, non expensive devices ( battery, rechargeable, or both) to power on my desktop scanner next time I am blacked out please???

Also, if monitoring frequencies on this site where two are joined together on one feed , can one be removed???

Thanks Much

[captclint]

Originally Posted by Archie

Are there any portable, non expensive devices ( battery, rechargeable, or both) to power on my desktop scanner next time I am blacked out please???

I see you have a bc785, which has a 12V input. I use a car battery which will go quite a while on what little the 785 draws. Of course, you would need a battery recharger. As for portable, you can get one of those battery jump start batteries, which are VERY handy to have in the car when you leave your lights on. I got one that also inflates tires, but that is a bit more expensive. Amazon.com: Jump Starters However, a shorter duration very cheap solution would be a D-cell battery holder and just use 8 D-Cells. http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2062245 The possibilities are really endless.

[jackj]

Stop by an Ace Hardware store. The local one sells maintenance-free gell-cell batteries of the type used in emergency lighting. One rated at about 8 A/Hr should run your scanner for 6 to 8 hours. You can recharge it from almost any low current car battery charger.

[AirScan1]

you could buy spare batteries
btteries plus has high power batteies
i would check out batteries plus is your best bet.

[gr8rcall]

A portable car jump starter. If they have a 12V DC plug. You can then just get an DC/AC inverter for it.

The jump starter will run about $100 bucks for a good one. it should say on it how long it will power radio-type equipment. Mine works for 120 or more hours.

I got mine at Oreilly auto parts. Works great.

[AirScan1]

best 1 iknow of is 1 from motorsport

[k3cfc]

Originally Posted by Archie

Are there any portable, non expensive devices ( battery, rechargeable, or both) to power on my desktop scanner next time I am blacked out please???

Also, if monitoring frequencies on this site where two are joined together on one feed , can one be removed???

Thanks Much

A 12 volt gel cell a 5 watt 12 volt solar panel and you are good to go. no fuss no muss.

[Confuzzled]

Lawn mower battery about $30 with a Float Charger from Harbor Freight for less than $10 on sale.

Keep the battery in a garage or shed with the float charger attached full time to maintain a full charge. Should power the scanner for 12 hours at least.

[cdknapp]

The 12 volt car jumper pack is an excellent idea! I have one that is 900 amps, with a conventional cigarette lighter plug, as well as a USB power port. I use the one that I have for powering a 50 watt mobile 2 way (for emergency field use). It draws too much power to use the cigarette lighter plug to power something this big, so I rigged up the battery clips to a 15 amp 12 volt female plug to plug the male end into for that use. I get a bunch of hours out of it on a single charge for this heavy usage; you'll get a bunch of days out of it for just powering a scanner, and could use a 12 volt lighter plug with NO problem. As it's a (sealed) lead-acid battery, I just leave it pugged into 110 all the time (as lead-acid batteries are designed to have a constant charge to them free of any damage), and just unplug and go as needed. As mentioned previously, it doubles as a car jump pack and compressor if I ever need it to boot! Even has a nice little LED flood light on it, which can be a big help during power outages. Look around (Harbor Freight, Sears, etc.) and you can pick one up at a very reasonable price. You don't need the biggest, most powerful, expensive one out there for this type of use, I just happened to pick this one up on sale at Sam's Club. Good luck!

[RadioDaze]

I use one of these:
Harbor Freight - 12 Volt Power Supply and Jump-Start
Sometimes you can get them even cheaper when they're on sale or there's a coupon.

[gunmasternd]

Power Inverter, Marine Inverter, XPower Inverter

Batterys plus can also upgrade the battery if its not up to your standards.

[AirScan1]

think think there is a website for a home power plant by briggs and stratton
frankly that another opition if you can afford it..
but still your best bet is order from Batteries plus it always good to carry spare batteries Nimh and standard alkilines

[hertzian]

The best way to go about it so you don't over or under-spend, is to calculate your desired power load. A sealed AGM battery would be ideal indoors. (NOT a gel-cell, and NOT a car battery. At the very least, use a hybrid marine deep discharge battery)

1) How much current does your scanner draw? For instance, a Uniden 996XT draws 900mah. Let's make that 1 amp / hour for convenience.

2) I want to power it long enough to sustain me through a 12-hour outage. So 1amp * 12 hours = 12 amps drawn.

3) DOUBLE that requirement, so 2 * 12 = a 24 ah battery is needed.

The reason for doubling the requirement is that the battery will cycle much longer if only drawn down to 50%. This may not be a huge issue for one-shot emergency where you will dispose of a battery drawn so far down that it is dead. However, doubling the capacity also ensures that you'll have enough operating voltage to properly operate the scanner. Some pieces of gear don't like going below 12v.

Depending on how much power you draw, even those convenient all-in-one battery packs may be too small, and even D-cell packs can be too small.

Assuming you get ac restored, you can charge it back up with a quality charger like a NOCO Genius 3500/7200, or say a Schumacher SC-1000AP charger that can accomodate both flooded and agm batteries. But how much of a charger do I need?

Flooded batteries don't like much more than 10% of the total capacity for recharge - ie, a 70ah battery won't like much more than about 7 amps of recharge current. Sealed AGM's can take up to about .25C, so a 70ah agm battery can withstand an initial 17.5 amp charge. You can see that the agm will charge up faster if that matters. AGM's also have much less self-discharge, and only need topping up every 6 months or so if you don't trickle them.

Buying batteries - try not to buy them if they are more than 6 months old as listed on the battery. AND / or, do not buy them if you receive them and they are under 12.6v on a multimeter if you can avoid it. If you are willing to chance it, you can go maybe a year, and perhaps 12.4 volts, but that's cutting it close when purchasing that you are getting old stock, or something that has been sitting in a hot rail-car for months on end.

Radio Shack has sealed AGM batteries in their "UPG" line, although these ups-style general purpose agm batteries are easy to find elsewhere.

Tip: if you do get a dual-purpose marine battery that doesn't directly list the AH rate, but only the "reserve capacity", you can multiply the "RC" value by 0.6 to get in the ballpark for calculating your needed capacity.

You may want to look at this helpful battery faq:
Deep Cycle Battery FAQ

Solar is also an option, but do homework first since many vastly understimate the amount of panel capacity needed to charge a battery in limited solar insolation timeframes - aka "deficit charging" - something to be avoided.

[gr8rcall]

Originally Posted by cdknapp

The 12 volt car jumper pack is an excellent idea! I have one that is 900 amps, with a conventional cigarette lighter plug, as well as a USB power port. I use the one that I have for powering a 50 watt mobile 2 way (for emergency field use). It draws too much power to use the cigarette lighter plug to power something this big, so I rigged up the battery clips to a 15 amp 12 volt female plug to plug the male end into for that use. I get a bunch of hours out of it on a single charge for this heavy usage; you'll get a bunch of days out of it for just powering a scanner, and could use a 12 volt lighter plug with NO problem. As it's a (sealed) lead-acid battery, I just leave it pugged into 110 all the time (as lead-acid batteries are designed to have a constant charge to them free of any damage), and just unplug and go as needed. As mentioned previously, it doubles as a car jump pack and compressor if I ever need it to boot! Even has a nice little LED flood light on it, which can be a big help during power outages. Look around (Harbor Freight, Sears, etc.) and you can pick one up at a very reasonable price. You don't need the biggest, most powerful, expensive one out there for this type of use, I just happened to pick this one up on sale at Sam's Club. Good luck!

Yeah! Thanks for the compliment!

I use mine to charge RC airplane batteries in the field, ect...

[gewecke]

Originally Posted by Archie

Are there any portable, non expensive devices ( battery, rechargeable, or both) to power on my desktop scanner next time I am blacked out please???

Also, if monitoring frequencies on this site where two are joined together on one feed , can one be removed???

Thanks Much

Simplest way to power your scanner is to connect your mobile power leads that came with your scanner to a couple of 6volt lantern batteries, but pay close attention to polarity!
The lantern batteries can be picked up at any wal mart.

73,
n9zas