BCD436HP/BCD536HP: Extending battery life during emergencies

[iMONITOR]

Although I'm very satisfied with the battery life of my 436, can it be extended further by putting the scan in HOLD mode?

 

[jonwienke]

No. At least not enough to notice.
https://www.radioreference.com/apps/classifieds/showproduct.php?product=8835&cat=13

 

[srpawski]

One of the many external lithium battery packs on the market that has USB ports to run things from like you can a smartphone or tablet should work.

 

[jonwienke]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FDK2G2C/

 

[hiegtx]

Although I'm very satisfied with the battery life of my 436, can it be extended further by putting the scan in HOLD mode?

Other than one or more additional sets of batteries for your 436HP, as already suggested, another option for keeping the scanner powered during emergencies, such as extended power outages resulting from storms or other weather events, would be to have one of the power banks, like those used for phones and tablets, available. I picked up one, on a lightning deal on Amazon, that requires no separate adapter for keeping it charged. Instead, it has plugs to directly plug into a wall outlet, making it stay charged until needed.

 

[iMONITOR]

I do have a couple of external power source options, and keep extra batteries in the trucks. I was just curious thinking the processor would not be working as hard if the scanner was not 'scanning' and might draw less current under those circumstances. In addition to that as most of us already know, I keep the back light usage to a minimum and audio at low volume.

 

[srpawski]

Those are designed after the old Hyperjuice plug in battery packs. They work great. Hyperjuide still makes one with a newer design. I'm not sure why they discontinued the old ones. They came in two different sizes.

If you are into amateur radio and solar power, you can set yourself up the ability to run it from a fuse protected rig runner and run it from either a LifePO4 battery or a sealed gel or lead acid deep cycle 12 volt battery which could be recharged with solar or just ran until depleted if solar isn't available.

Bioenno power also has this product which could also be used

https://www.bioennopower.com/collections/solar-controllers/products/28-watt-foldable-solar-panel

 

[DJ11DLN]

I use a cheap jumper pack from Harbor Freight for power outages. It cost $35 after the coupons and it will run 2 B/M scanners plugged into the lighter sockets for many hours. I've never had it run down on me so far. My only gripe with it is that the native USB ports are only energized when the built-in inverter is turned on. But lighter plug/USB adapters fix that as the lighter sockets are always live.

 

[Ubbe]

In the profile page of Sentinel, in the Miscellanious tab. it says "Battery save mode Yes/No".

In normal cases with portable scanners when you are on hold on a frequency it turns off the receiver to save battery and only engage the receiver for some milliseconds with one second intervals, enough time to detect if a carrier are present on the frequency. As the receiver usually takes the most current it could make a huge difference to battery life.

If you do not want to take the risk of missing the first part of a transmission you have the option to disabel the battery save mode.

/Ubbe

 

[KK4JUG]

Jonwienke has the right idea. Get the battery pack. You can use for the scanner, your phone, an mp3 player and about anything that charged by USB,