I hear this often. A customer complaint this morning:
"I leave my radio in the charger all the time (running so I can hear traffic) and when I take it out the battery is nearly dead,"
Yep, that's what they do. Icom's chargers (and many other brands) are designed to charge a turned off radio, then revert to a bare trickle afterwards. Leaving the radio on while in the charger will charge the battery, and after that the radio draws more power than the maintenance trickle and will run down while in the charger.
Solution 1: Have two batteries, one always on charge and one on the radio. Swap as needed. Spares are always a good thing anyway, especially in an emergency response.
Solution 2: (The redneck option) go to Walmart and buy a lamp timer. Set the timer ON all the time except for several minimum time OFF periods. When the timer turns the charger off then back on, it will bring the battery to a full charge.
Option 3, only for the F50: Get a BC190 sensing charger. These are designed to keep a running radio charged. The standard BC119 will not.
Note: new series chargers (for the F52, F3400) are also sensing, but for the old tried and true radios with the BP232, BP227 and BP254 batteries you only have option 1 or 2 available.
"I leave my radio in the charger all the time (running so I can hear traffic) and when I take it out the battery is nearly dead,"
Yep, that's what they do. Icom's chargers (and many other brands) are designed to charge a turned off radio, then revert to a bare trickle afterwards. Leaving the radio on while in the charger will charge the battery, and after that the radio draws more power than the maintenance trickle and will run down while in the charger.
Solution 1: Have two batteries, one always on charge and one on the radio. Swap as needed. Spares are always a good thing anyway, especially in an emergency response.
Solution 2: (The redneck option) go to Walmart and buy a lamp timer. Set the timer ON all the time except for several minimum time OFF periods. When the timer turns the charger off then back on, it will bring the battery to a full charge.
Option 3, only for the F50: Get a BC190 sensing charger. These are designed to keep a running radio charged. The standard BC119 will not.
Note: new series chargers (for the F52, F3400) are also sensing, but for the old tried and true radios with the BP232, BP227 and BP254 batteries you only have option 1 or 2 available.
