POWER STATION 7 Amp-Hr Gel Cell

The POWER STATION is a 7 Amp-Hr gel cell reduced lead-acid battery. Unlike a ni-cad battery that has memory, you don’t need to completely discharge the battery before recharging it. The POWER STATION can be recharged when it is partially or completely discharged. This gives you the benefit of always being able to recharge your battery any time you wish. Therefore, the battery can always be "topped off" and ready for action or emergencies. The charger light on the POWER STATION will also blink to signal when the unit is becoming low on charge and should be recharged. You’ll rarely see this on the POWER STATION since it has so much reserve capacity. But if you do, just recharge the unit as soon as possible. The POWER STATION has a 12 V cigarette lighter output in the front that provides power to an HT or cell phone. In addition, it has 2 terminals in the rear for high amperage (up to 90 Amps for a short time) to power a mobile radio of other devices. The POWER STATION also has a 3, 6 or 9 V selectable terminal on the side, rated at .5 Amps, for powering small devices such as portable CD players, iambic keyers, etc.
  • 2 hidden terminals in the rear for powering items that draw 20 Amps, such as a portable HF radio (i.e. IC-706 or FT-100) or VHF/UHF mobile radios, portable TV, DC-to-AC inverters  (more current could be drawn, but for a shorter duration).
  • Cigarette lighter outlet that will power a cell phone, GPS unit, Handie Talkie, etc. for weeks (depending on average current consumption see below).
  • 3, 6, 9 Volt output at 1/2 Amp output via an 1/8" mini jack.
  • Voltage meter to measure the internal battery, as well as other batteries.
  • Wall and car chargers included.
  • Auto shutoff charging. No need to worry about over charging.
  • 7 inches wide x 4 1/2 inches deep x 8 inches tall
  • Weight approximately 7 pounds
    • The POWER STATION is our most popular item. We have sold tens of thousand of them. We offer our famous 3 month (talk nice and it's 6 months) warranty on this and most of our products!

    Price: $59.95 + $10.50 S&H

    BATTERY FACTS
    OR
    HOW MUCH LIFE CAN BE EXPECTED FROM A BATTERY for an HF RIG?

    If life was ideal, a 20 Amp-Hr battery would put out 20 Amps for 1 Hour, or 1 Amp for 20 hours before it was exhausted.

    Rule #1 Life is not ideal.

    Rule #2 All batteries, are measured over a 20 hour period (therefore, 1 Amp for 20 hours is correct). This is called the C20 rate, and the reason that you get a full 1 Amp for 20 hours from a 20 Amp-Hr battery.

    Rule #3 If a battery is discharged faster than the C20 rate, the capacity of the battery will be diminished. If you draw as many Amps as the battery’s Amp-Hr rating (i.e. 20 Amps from a 20 Amp-Hr or 7 Amps from a 7 Amp-Hr), it will last only about 60% of an hour or 36 minutes at which point the battery will appear to be discharged. Ignore the rest of this rule unless you’re a technoid. The interface at the acid/plates has been exhausted of the electrons faster than they could be replenished with those located within the plate. You’ll then walk away from the battery thinking it’s dead, and return sometime later only to find out that some useful charge has "returned" to the battery. The reason is that those unused electrons have had time to migrate from the center of the plates to the edge of the plates at the lead/acid interface where the reaction occurs, so the battery has come "back to life".

    Rule #4 DON’T LEAVE A BATTERY COMPLETELY DISCHARGED FOR ANY LENGTH OF TIME OR IT WILL BE DAMAGED. This is true for any type of battery. A battery left in a state of discharge will be ruined. When in doubt, top it off!

    Rule #5 Don’t overcharge a battery such as a POCKET STATION or POCKET GENERATOR by leaving it hooked up to a wall charger for weeks at a time unless it has a regulator. Our POWER STATION has such a regulator and can be left charging indefinitely, but to save weight and size, the POCKET STATIONS and POCKET GENERATOR do not have an internal regulator for the wall charger. These units should be charged for 24 hours and then unplugged.

    Rule #6 ALL OUR 12V PRODUCTS (POWER STATIONS, POCKET STATIONS, POCKET GENERATOR & MEGA STATION AC) CAN BE LEFT PLUGGED INTO THE CAR FOR CHARGING INDEFINITELY! Due to the fact that they are in parallel with the car battery and the car battery regulator, a battery would not experience overcharging.

    Rule #7 Even though your HF rig states 20 Amps during transmit this occurs only during voice peaks on SSB. Since the peaks are at 20 Amps and the valleys of your speech are much lower, the average is only about 6 amps for transmit when you look at the area under the current vs. time curve. To compute how long a battery will last for your HF radio, define the current average during TX as 6 Amps, and during RX as 1.5 (or 3/2) Amps. Note: AM & FM use a steady current, review your radio's spec's for the current draw.

    Example: For simplicity define an HF operating session as 1 hour. During an hour you talk for one minute and listen for two minutes (i.e. you talk for 1/3 of the time for a total of 1/3 Hr and listen for 2/3 Hr).

    Current (During Tx) x Time + Current (During Rx) x Time = Amp-Hrs (Total)
    Amp-Hrs for TX + Amp-Hrs for RX = Total Amp-Hrs used for 1 Hr of operation
    (Current AVG for Tx) x Time + (Current for Rx) x Time = Total Amp-Hr
    6 Amps (Tx Avg) x 1/3 Hr + 3/2 Amps (Rx) x 2/3 Hr = Total Amp-Hr
    6 x 1/3 + 3/2 x 2/3 = Total Amp-Hr
    2 Amp-Hr + 1 Amp-Hr = 3 Amp-Hr
    3 Amp-Hr = Total Amp-Hr required for 1 session.
    THE POWER STATION is a 7 Amp-Hr battery, so you should get more than a couple of sessions (i.e. a couple hours) with a POWER STATION or POCKET STATION 7. THE MEGA STATION AC has 17 Amp-Hrs, and so it would last about 5 or 6 sessions. Again, these are approximations. Each radio as well as the operator have different Tx & Rx characteristics. Some of us are more long winded than others, and hence the number of sessions would be reduced. But this is a very good analytical approach.