I have read a couple of posts about battery life. Comments had peaked my curiosity about the power used by a BCD396T so I made a small shim that allowed me to place a current meter in-line with the batteries.
Radio:
BCD396T, purchased 4 weeks ago
ID Scanning Irving & Carrollton, TX system
Using internal speaker set to volume 3
Batteries & Condition:
Stock, fresh charge and reading 3.92 upper right corner of display
Meter:
Calibrated Fluke 8020B Multimeter
Measurement (Backlight OFF):
156-158 mA
Measurement (Backlight ON):
198-200 mA
Measurement (Radio OFF):
32 uA
Audio on/off or volume level made no noticeable change to current level. Only thing I don’t try was using an ear-piece to see if that made a difference. Two-milliamp variation was rapid and seemed to be tied to switching from one system to the other but can’t say for sure.
Radio:
BCD396T, purchased 4 weeks ago
ID Scanning Irving & Carrollton, TX system
Using internal speaker set to volume 3
Batteries & Condition:
Stock, fresh charge and reading 3.92 upper right corner of display
Meter:
Calibrated Fluke 8020B Multimeter
Measurement (Backlight OFF):
156-158 mA
Measurement (Backlight ON):
198-200 mA
Measurement (Radio OFF):
32 uA
Audio on/off or volume level made no noticeable change to current level. Only thing I don’t try was using an ear-piece to see if that made a difference. Two-milliamp variation was rapid and seemed to be tied to switching from one system to the other but can’t say for sure.