Anyone use a UPS for their scanner?

[RedPenguin]

I was going through my normal power outage/blimps in my area, and thought it was annoying how, I can keep my laptop recording my BCT15 during special events or something good going on, but if the power goes out, the laptop will stay on but the BCT15 obviously will go out.

I got to thinking, does anyone else here actually employ one of the smaller and cheaper UPS systems for small things like their scanners?

I was looking a some $40 ones, but the only problem is, no sites seem to tell you how long they would keep a very small load going like a radio scanner, it's always rated by a computer + monitor.

I was looking at this one Newegg.com - DirectUPS DP400 400VA 200 Watts 2 Outlets UPS - UPS, because it is only $36.99 and that doesn't seem like a bad price to keep in on the action, especially since my area experiencing many annoying power blips and outages.

Is there a way to use what amount of power my BCT15 uses and the VA rating to find out how long it would actually keep it going?

I obviously, don't want/need a UPS that would keep my BCT15 up for a week, but we get power interruptions anywhere from mere seconds to about 1 hour to the most 2. I am curious since it would really only power a scanner and that's it, it 2 hours isn't unachievable.

EDIT: I started realizing that probably a scanner would probably barely use any UPS, so I would be curious to see how much I would probably need to just run the recording PC and the BCT15.

 

[zzdiesel]

I have my two radio's (BCT-15 & Pro 197) hooked to an APC UPS 650. I also have my desk phone hooked to it. The backup held those almost 4 hrs when we had the ice storm in late Jan.

 

[RedPenguin]

Nice....

I have my two radio's (BCT-15 & Pro 197) hooked to an APC UPS 650. I also have my desk phone hooked to it. The backup held those almost 4 hrs when we had the ice storm in late Jan.

I like the 4 hours part.

Anyway, what I'm trying to find out, but I must not be searching the net right, I'm trying to figure out, how many VA's I need to keep up an older 1.51GHZ P4 512MB RAM machine up plus my BCT15.

I have found various "calculators" on the net, but it seems I end up with really weird answers like I really did not use the correct information.

Like I said, I just want my BCT15 and Recorder Desktop PC to stay up for at least 1 hour but 2 hours if possible. I've never really had the power go out for more than 2 hours.

Yea, I like having scanners available during power outages, because you learn way more than the electric company or anyone else would ever tell you over the phone. I mean, you get a real good idea, if it's going to be a short wait, long wait, etc. Also, you somewhat get to find out the cause.

 

[zzdiesel]

It would take a big one. I also have an APC Backup-UPS RS 800 with new batteries hooked to my desktop system. The APC software shows that I only have 12 minutes of reserve.with my system. I have it set to automatically shut it down in 5 minutes if the power stays off. That's with two flat monitors and a cheap speaker set.

You sound a lot like me. I bought a generator during the ice storm. I won't be without power at my desk very long depending on what the power situation is.

 

[RedPenguin]

Well...

Yea, I guess as long as I can power the BCT15 that would be great, because during special events, I can't stand when the darn power goes out and than I get no recordings at all, and then I don't feel like I got complete use out of my scanner purchases even though Uniden obviously had nothing to do with it.

 

[captclint]

Yea, I guess as long as I can power the BCT15 that would be great,

I keep an old car battery around for just such things. It will last much longer than most UPS for small appliances such as scanner.

 

[fineshot1]

Here is another similar thread

http://www.radioreference.com/forums/home-audio-theater/138389-home-system-power-protection.html

 

[davidmc36]

Add A Battery

Most UPS have a replaceable battery. It should be fairly easy to add a small car battery or large gel-cel in parallel with the battery that is in it. I played around with a calculator that said a 800VA UPS at 11% of max load, which they say is usually 60% of VA rating so that would be 480*0.11=52W would last for 72mins. The owners manual does not give a power consumption figure for the 15 but if you could find/measure that.........

 

[zzdiesel]

I keep an old car battery around for just such things. It will last much longer than most UPS for small appliances such as scanner.

I pulled one of my 1000 CCA batteries off of my truck during the ice storm before I bought the generator. The two scanners pretty well killed it in 2 1/2 days. I thought I might've ruined the battery but I lucked out. I had to do something. We had no communications besides our cell phones. We had digital phone service and the cable was torn down by fallen tree limbs. We were living with what almost felt like the Dark Ages again. We went back to AT&T after all this. We don't want everything to depend one line anymore.

 

[captmfa7112]

yup, I have a separate UPS just for my scanners. I had originally replaced it because the battery went bad but I replaced the battery and now I have a UPS dedicated to my scanners. It works perfect for me because the power outages we get here in nyc don't last that long and if we get something like the 2003 blackout, I won't be home to listen anyway lol

 

[KD8CES]

I use a 28 Amp hour sealed lead acid battery coupled to a radio shack 25 amp power supply through a super powergate 40s switch/charger that automatically charges, and switches to battery backup without losing power. I have run 3 scanners, and a ft7800r yaesu amatuer radio in receive mode with some tx for a week just to see how long it would run. when power returns the powergate will charge at the rate needed for the amount of discharge and will go to float when fully charged. works flawlessly. Batterymart.com has alot of sealed lead acid batteries on sale from time to time. I paid $25.00 for mine new. scannerdweeb.

 

[KD8CES]

I forgot to mention, this is all powered at 12 volts dc, and use 12v cigar plugs to run the radios, hard wired for the ham, the power supply is 25amp 12 volt dc output, 120 volt, 6 amp input, and with the powergate you should adjust the output voltage to 14.1 volts dc to over come voltage drop through the powergate. Powerwerx.com has a large assortment of accesories to accomadate backup power and distribution.SD

 

[N4DES]

I have two 12V 100 Amp/Hr sealed batteries in parallel with a Marine Type charger on it and have my whole shack on it to include scanners, VHF/UHF/HF radios and anything else that works on 12V. I also made some step-down regulators to put all my computer switch & router on that operates at 8VDC.

I had a 6 hour outage a few weeks ago and nothing went off and is calulated to give me a good week with light/medium usage. If we do get another hurricane chances that the cable will be out anyway so I can disable the computer equipment as it will be unneeded for a few days to a week.

 

[cpuerror]

If you just want to power a BC15, it might be cheaper and easier to just use a small, 7AH gel battery like used for emergency lights. If you use a UPS, you will be going from 12V, to 120V, then back to 12 again and all that converting is going to use more power then your scanner. You can even buy those small portable booster packs that come with those batteries and use the cigarrette lighter adapter to power the scanner.

Either way it will give much more runtime then a UPS for the $$, plus UPS's are noisey things, APC will buzz and hum and other brands beep beep beep non stop until the power comes back.

 

[kf4uuz]

I'm not quite sure if this is what you're looking for. It served my needs quite well after we had no electricity for over two weeks after hurricane Wilma, in 2005. I used a 400 watt power inverter, which can either be plugged into your vehicle cigar lighter, or easily connected directly to your cars battery. It comes with two 110 volt outlets. You can always add an extension cord with multiple oulets if you need to.

I also always keep a bunch of AA alkaline batteries around, which take care of my (handheld) scanning needs.

 

[TIZ6]

My scanner AC adapter is plugged into the same Belkin 1100va UPS that protects my computer and weather station. Unattended with the monitor off I get at least 45 minutes of backup time, which is more than enough for me. (When we have a power outage, it's rarely more than 5-15 minutes.)

I also keep a 105amp deep cycle battery handy for my amateur radios, as well as one of those Crappy Tire luggable powerpacks w/400watt inverter.

If you have really long power outages - hours or days - I agree with others that computer UPSs won't cut the mustard. 12v deep cycle batteries for camping can be had cheaply.

 

[RedPenguin]

Thank You...

Alright, I have read all the replies about the battery options.

Now, from what I can gather by Google Search your said equipment, I would be better of using a battery plus charger type setup?

It seems at least one or two peoples of many of the setups are $100+ plus the batteries, or is that probably the best deal I can get for what I want?

 

[slicerwizard]

Anyway, what I'm trying to find out, but I must not be searching the net right, I'm trying to figure out, how many VA's I need to keep up an older 1.51GHZ P4 512MB RAM machine up plus my BCT15.

The monitor will kill the UPS, so it'd better be turned off.

You should've got yourself a laptop PC and a portable scanner...

Most UPS have a replaceable battery. It should be fairly easy to add a small car battery or large gel-cel in parallel with the battery that is in it.

Car batteries and UPS SLA's have slightly different charging voltages; might not be much of an issue though. Also, car batteries don't like deep cycling, but neither do the SLA's they stick in UPS units. Go figure.

 

[RedPenguin]

That's what I have

That's what I have, but my BR330T seems to crap out on 453.350 getting interference from 453.3375, and using PL cuts things off in both FM and NFM.

Maybe if I get it fixed, I will be good.

 

[W6KRU]

That's what I have, but my BR330T seems to crap out on 453.350 getting interference from 453.3375, and using PL cuts things off in both FM and NFM.

Maybe if I get it fixed, I will be good.

This again????????????? Good grief. :evil: