GORDO’S SHORT CIRCUITS
Plus Summertime Tropo for VHF / UHF DX
Last April and May, COVID-19 confined most of us to home-QTH operation. Many of us had lots of spare time to work over our “grab and go” radio bags, although the mandate was NOT to go … anywhere. For most of us during the pandemic, the backyard would be the safest GO-TO proving ground for portable radio operation check outs!
Many emergency communicators have switched from their small 12-volt sealed lead acid (SLA) portable battery to the lithium iron phosphate battery (LiFePO4). Here is why: The typical grab-and-go bag 12-volt DC lithium iron phosphate battery, about the size of a brick, is about half the weight of a same-sized small SLA battery. But that’s not all.
The lithium iron
