When I worked for Vectrol Inc, we designed a new production, battery forming charger which is needed to make new lead-acid batteries, so I learned a little about your typical "car" battery when talking to the engineers. Granted, this was over 40 years ago, so battery technology has obviously changed a lot since then. Basically, a pure chemical lead/acid battery cannot supply the yuge starting current required to crank over a big V8 engine, so antimony is added to the plates which drastically increases the max current rating. However, the down side is that this chemical composition battery is irrevocably damaged if it is allowed to discharge below a certain voltage. "Deep-Cycle" batteries are simply regular lead/acid batteries without the added antimony, thus allowing recoverable discharge way below that which would kill a "car" battery. They won't crank your muscle car over, but a small electric outboard boat motor is fine.
Since the IMD degrades at low DC supply voltages in our typical 12V powered finals, if you must use a deep-cycle lead/acid battery, I suggest using one of those battery booster things that MFJ and probably others sell to keep the output up. 73, Charlie k3ICH ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
