Contacting Midland

[hpssb]

I used to run the Midland 13-895, basically the same radio, but it had a power supply built into the bottom of the radio.
They were $369.95 new when they came out, a rather large amount of money back in the day.
I worked a lot of dx with that radio untill I replaced it with a TRC 448 40 channel radio.

73
Jeff

We never had the mains powered one down here, probably too much work to change the transformer to suit the local 240v house supply.

The mobile version worked great but not much dx to be had when all the people interstate are waiting or calling on 35 (oz call channel since about the late 80s), radio would have to be in mint condition or have sedimental value to justify expense of a 40+ conversion to a crystal locked radio.

 

[whiteastro]

Final report. Received My 2 rechargeable battery boxes today And Midland threw in a 3rd one no charge, so They are on my good side again. LOL Maybe it helped when I told them I was considering buying on of their MXT-575 GMRS radios !

 

[Dopple]

I bought a few of those battery boxes, they fit the Cobra HH45 and HH46 radios perfectly. Though, my HH46 is a dark green color, so it wouldn't match. They seem to be better quality than the Cobra 8AA boxes, too. I don't get the BATT low on high power with the Midland box on it. (Same NiMH AA's.) They'll also fit my Magnum 1012, just not quite as wide, and the power/coax adapter for the Midland also works on the 1012, antenna and all!

 

[whiteastro]

I bought a few of those battery boxes, they fit the Cobra HH45 and HH46 radios perfectly. Though, my HH46 is a dark green color, so it wouldn't match. They seem to be better quality than the Cobra 8AA boxes, too. I don't get the BATT low on high power with the Midland box on it. (Same NiMH AA's.) They'll also fit my Magnum 1012, just not quite as wide, and the power/coax adapter for the Midland also works on the 1012, antenna and all!

Thanks for the input, I didn't realize they were so interchangeable with other radios. One thing I don't like about that rechargeable battery box is the charge indicator light doesn't shut off or change color when the charge is complete. From here on in I will take the batteries out and charge them in the 8 cell charger I got from Walmart with 8 NIMH batteries that are actually 2800mAh. That's the largest mAh batteries I've found so far and the charger shuts off when complete. I think maybe the circuit board in the original battery box may have fried something by not shutting off when charge was complete ????

 

[Dopple]

The charging circuit in the battery box is just a couple resistors and a diode. It's not a "smart" charger, which is why you can't leave it plugged in forever. I have two mutli-channel chargers, one that does 16AA/AAA, and a Maha charger that does 8. They will also do a condition cycle, where they fully charge, discharge, and then charge each cell. Recently, I did get a NiMH cell tester, only 4 at a time, but it works. But, only for NiMH, not NiCD cells. While the capacity of NiMH is fantastic, NiCD cells will hold their charge longer, though the LSD NiMH cells are getting much better.

 

[Dopple]

I really wish they made a 10AA box for the radio. One of my Radio Shack HT's has a 10AA NiMH pack, soldered and glued, but it's getting weak, and the 2nd one I have needs new cells. Kind of a pain to pull them apart and rebuild them, but it's doable.

 

[whiteastro]

I really wish they made a 10AA box for the radio. One of my Radio Shack HT's has a 10AA NiMH pack, soldered and glued, but it's getting weak, and the 2nd one I have needs new cells. Kind of a pain to pull them apart and rebuild them, but it's doable.

There is or was a place in southern PA that rebuilds battery packs but I don't know if they would do that one for you. Yes I've thought of repairing that circuit board in that original battery box but I have too many other Fish to Fry so it will get set to the side and wait until I get Crippled so I have to set around. LOL

 

[Dopple]

Batteries America will rebuild pretty much any battery pack. I'm considering sending them the two Radio Shack ones, and the radio to test. I know they can get more than 1400mAh cells in there.

 

[whiteastro]

Batteries America will rebuild pretty much any battery pack. I'm considering sending them the two Radio Shack ones, and the radio to test. I know they can get more than 1400mAh cells in there.

Well if you value the radios it might be a good option or your only option. I went thru the Midland owners manual on my radio and they gave absolutely no instructions on re-charging batteries in their rechargeable battery packs. I'm sure they had many problems with that mistake. I never could read Minds. LOL

 

[Dopple]

Well, if you know the cells are 2800mah, then you should charge them at a rate that equals their capacity. So, 100mA for 28 hours, or 200mA for 14 hours, etc. That's a rough figure, but should suffice. Obviously the faster you charge them, the faster they wear out.

 

[whiteastro]

Well, if you know the cells are 2800mah, then you should charge them at a rate that equals their capacity. So, 100mA for 28 hours, or 200mA for 14 hours, etc. That's a rough figure, but should suffice. Obviously the faster you charge them, the faster they wear out.

Well I bought the charger from the manufacture of the batteries so that's what I'll use to charge them and it's a no-brainer auto shut down operation. NIMH isn't suppose to suffer from the memory problem that NICD does.

 

[Dopple]

That's the best way to do it, a proper smart charger. If it can do a condition cycle, it's still good to do that with NiMH cells, too.

 

[whiteastro]

That's the best way to do it, a proper smart charger. If it can do a condition cycle, it's still good to do that with NiMH cells, too.

They gave no condition cycle instructions with the charger.

 

[Dopple]

If it has the capability, there will be a button on it for it. Usually looks like the "reload" button in a browser, a circular arrow. One of mine has that, the other says "refresh".

 

[whiteastro]

Thanks for the heads up but mine doesn't have it but I wouldn't expect it either because it didn't strike me as being expensive when I found it. I bought it because it is the first one I seen that would recharge all 8 batteries and it came with the 2800 maH batteries so I figured it would handle them.