DC-DC Battery Charging for a Mobile Ham Radio  

I have a question inspired by an earlier question on your site about the Isolation Solenoid # PK5231201. My first reaction at reading the post is Is it really that simple? There are many battery chargers on the market that are just full of computer chips, capacitors, and other bits so that I may charge and maintain my batteries and keep them happy. Yet, your answer from the post referred to above seems to say, just attached the trailer battery to power from the tow vehicle. I am not criticizing. Heaven knows I am far from being an expert on the care and feeding of batteries. I was just surprised it could be that easy. My specific application is different from towing a trailer, but charging a trailer battery seems to be about the only application addressing DC-DC charging. Your input would be most appreciated. As part of my volunteer activities, I operate a mobile ham radio. I am often required to operate from a rental van or someone elses private car. The mobile radios can draw up to 10 amps, something I am not comfortable drawing from the vehicles cigarette lighter. I would like to use a small sealed lead acid battery in the car to power the radio, and use a connection to the cigarette lighter to provide low current charging to keep the battery charged. The duty cycle for the radio is about 5 so there is plenty of time for the charger to keep up. My first thought was to simply connect the cigarette lighter to the battery. A diode and 5 ohm resistor would keep the charging current down to about half an amp. So, my question: Is it this simple, or is there a more specialized, electronic solution you could recommend. Thank you for your time

asked by: Jeff E

0