The Li-ion Battery

Icom now offers more Lithium Ion (Lion) batteries for its handheld radios. In fact, they’re now coming as standard equipment with our latest two way radios.

Li-ion offers a number of key advantages over other, older battery types. Ounce per ounce, Li-ion batteries offer more capacity than their older counterparts. This allows battery packs to be smaller and lighter, without sacrificing operating time. On the IC-F15 series, the standard BP-231 Li-ion weighs in at 5.1 ounces and offers 1150mAh@7.4V for up to 8 hours of normal operation (5%TX, 5% RX, 90% standby, all at room temperature.)

The memory charging issues that can plague Ni-Cd batteries and even some Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) batteries are virtually non-existent with Li-ion. In fact, you can charge a Li-ion battery while it’s on a radio. Leave the radio turned on while charging and monitor while you charge – you can’t do that with Ni-Cd. (Just don’t transmit while charging!)

20/03/2006