Icom IC-A14 detailed questions

I need to replace my 24 year old crew radio. The current radio sits in
it's charger base 98% of the time, with the charger power on. At home,
it's connected to an external speaker that's in my wife's sewing room
and to an antenna on the roof; in the motorhome, we use it's internal
speaker, but it's still connected to a roof antenna. It might get
removed ocasionally for use as a handheld.

The A14 looks like it would do the job, mostly. I'm hoping someone
already knows the answers, so I don't have to wait till Tuesday to
contact Icom...

1) Can the A14 be powered externally while it's in use? This could be
cord from an external power supply or cigarette lighter socket, or a
charger base that it sits in while turned on (the manual says it must be
off while in the supplied charger base).

2) Can it be left on charge indefinitely while turned off?

Any pertinent comments are encouraged.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)

On 7/2/2011 3:34 PM, Tim Newport-Peace wrote:

The A14 looks like it would do the job, mostly. I'm hoping someone
already knows the answers, so I don't have to wait till Tuesday to
contact Icom...

1) Can the A14 be powered externally while it's in use? This could be
cord from an external power supply or cigarette lighter socket, or a
charger base that it sits in while turned on (the manual says it must be
off while in the supplied charger base).

2) Can it be left on charge indefinitely while turned off?

Any pertinent comments are encouraged.

The A14 is not available in UK, but it looks very much like the A6 in
the battery area. This also says "Be sure to turn the transceiver power
OFF, when charging the battery pack with the transceiver".

The reason for not operating while charging is that the voltage applied
during charging exceeds the tolerance of same of the radio components,
so the answer to "Can the A14 be powered externally while it's in use?"
is probably NO.

If I were you, I would look for a second-hand A2, A22, A3 or A22. All
these radios run happily with a 12-volt supply connected to the radio
(not to the battery).

I'm considering your suggestion, along with a couple of ideas. I did
contact Icom, which said leaving the radio on charge all the time will
reduce the life of the battery.

They didn't respond to my question about why the radio should be turned
off while charging, but I think it has such a low current charger, the
only way it can be fully charged in the specified 12 hours is for the
radio to be off. I don't think overvoltage while charging is an issue,
given that they provide a battery case for 6 AA cells. With fresh cells,
that's about 9.5 volts. Typically, a two cell Li-ion battery would be
charged to around 8.4 volts, a volt less than the AA battery pack can
provide.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Feb/2010" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm
http://tinyurl.com/yb3xywl
- "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation Mar/2004" Much of what
you need to know tinyurl.com/yfs7tnz

On 7/6/2011 3:01 PM, Eric Greenwell wrote:
On 7/2/2011 3:34 PM, Tim Newport-Peace wrote:

If I were you, I would look for a second-hand A2, A22, A3 or A22. All
these radios run happily with a 12-volt supply connected to the radio
(not to the battery).

I'm considering your suggestion, along with a couple of ideas. I did
contact Icom, which said leaving the radio on charge all the time will
reduce the life of the battery.

They didn't respond to my question about why the radio should be turned
off while charging, but I think it has such a low current charger, the
only way it can be fully charged in the specified 12 hours is for the
radio to be off. I don't think overvoltage while charging is an issue,
given that they provide a battery case for 6 AA cells. With fresh cells,
that's about 9.5 volts. Typically, a two cell Li-ion battery would be
charged to around 8.4 volts, a volt less than the AA battery pack can
provide.

I ordered an Icom A6 because it will work with external power well, as
long as you use the CP-20 "cigar socket" power supply cord. The Icom
support guy did not recommend using the AC adapter to supply external
power, though the manual seems to indicate it is OK to do so.

Since my old radio uses an external 120VAC/13.8 volt output power
supply, I can use that with the CP-20/A6, and of course, the CP-20/A6
will be happy with the cigar power socket in the motorhome.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)