What you are seeing is over-charge which is normal. The battery should settle around the 9.6v mark and last a while there. Even when charging my Sanyo Superlatice Evo Cell 2700mah batteries I see over-charge. A good page to look at regarding power consumption in the FT817 is http://www.ka7oei.com/ft817_pwr.html . He sums up that a good way to conserve power is to turn the IPO On, keep the NB Off, keep the Screen Backlight Off, and stick to using the Front BNC connector will save the most power. Wearing headphones and transmitting on lower power helps out too.

~73, KC2WQW

On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 12:12 PM, ANTHONY JAPHA tjjapha@earthlink.netwrote:

I use 2 FT817s for portable ops, and have been disappointed in the battery performance. Last year, I bought replacement batteries from Batteries America, the FNB-72xe, rated at 9.6v. at 2000mAh. There's no noticable difference between these new batteries and the originals.

The batteries charge to just over 11.0 volts, but quickly drop through 10 volts, as indicated by the voltage reading that appears when the rigs are turned on. Maybe this is just normal behavior for a 9.6 v. battery. Is this what you would expect? Has anyone found a battery with a higher voltage rating and/or one that will maintain a higher voltage for an appreciable period--and fits into the 817? Every bit of power helps!

Many tnx and 73, Tony, N2UN LM 183 _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb