Can I leave my radio in the battery charger with the radio power on?

Do not leave the radio powered on when charging the battery. When a powered-on radio is used with a trickle-charger, such as the BC-152, the charger will be unable to supply enough current to charge the battery and power the radio at the same time.

If the radio power is left on in the BC-160 rapid charger, once the battery has been charged, the charger will shut off. Once this has occurred, the radio will slowly lose charge. The charger will not reset and begin charging again unless the radio is removed and reinstalled in the charger.

When charging with the BC-119N/121N charger, the battery will be charged at high current (rapid charging), then when the battery is fully charged, the charger will revert to trickle-charging. At this point, if the radio is left on, the radio will start to drain the battery. When the battery voltage falls to approximately 7.3V, the rapid charging sequence will resume. If the radio power is on, and the charger is in the trickle-charge sequence, the battery may not be at full capacity when it is removed from the charger.

We recommend that batteries, whether stand-alone or attached to a radio, be removed from the charger as soon as the battery reaches full charge. If a radio needs to be kept on all night or during a work shift, be sure to have a spare, fully charged battery available. Keep one battery in the charger and switch batteries with the radio after a shift or when left overnight.

For more details about the Icom range of radio chargers visit our charger page

03/01/2018