This was test is a comparison of battey life vs the number of QSOs for eight cell battery packs. The rig was run at 500 mWatts doing whatever I tended to do, be it listening to the county hunter net or playing in some contest. I used a different rig or batteries for rag chew QSOs so these comparisons would be as similar as possible. The table below list the number of QSOs for each run of the battery and how many hours the battery set lasted in each case. The NiMH tests were all done with the same set of eight Batteries.

All QSOs at 500 mWatts or Less

NiMH Batteries Days For Test Total Hours Total QSOs 3 23 43 2 23 59

Alkaline Batteries Days For Test Total Hours Total QSOs 9 25.5 14 4 26 22

With these test there is no clear winner when running 500 mwatts. Perhaps that will change as I run more tests. So far it looks like if I spread the acitvity over at least three to four days then either set of batteries will do just as well. Perhaps if I can get a run with more QSOs with the alkaline batteries then the NiMH batteries will look like the better choice. But at this point that is no more than speculation.

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Test Conditions

First the K1 was set up with just the auto tuner. I had not put the NB in the rig. Plus the autotuner was off line as I was feeding tuned dipoles. I also set the power at my usual 500 mWatts. And lastly I used the speaker rather than headphones. All the QSOs were contest type. The were either getting counties off the county hunter net, playing in the VA QSO party, or in the NJ HB sprint. No rag chewing for these tests and I didn't send CQ for either contest. This was done to keep the comparisons as equal as possible. Wayne of Elecraft has said that the rig is good down to 8 volts. So I declared the batteries dead when they hit 8.0 volts on key-down when running 500 mWatts according to the display on the K1. Receive current drain was about 54 mA, and transmit current drain was about 330 mA. I used an eight cell pack of batteries.

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