So many people seem to have done the green wire mod and used the dry cell
carrier to hold NiMH cells and not mentioned any problems that I was
surprised to end up abandoning the attempt. The carrier, filled with
batteries, is too tight a fit to go in my FT-817. It seems to me that I
would have to undo the screws and remove the bottom half of the case
completely before I could get the pack in. It would certainly not be
possible to just unclip the battery cover and swap the battery packs over
quickly when one runs out, as I had originally intended. Since there isn't
much point in having two battery packs, one of which I can't use, I have
decided to carry on with the Yaesu rechargeable pack that came with the
radio. Anyone want to buy 8 1500 mAH NiMH cells, unused? I already have
plenty of spares. Pity I didn't discover this until after I removed the
green wire.
Incidentally I discovered that with the pack going in the way that looks
intuitive to me, ie with the batteries visible, there is a fair chance that
the edge of the battery cover aperture, which has quite a sharp edge, could
cut into the batteries and cause a short. It seems to me that the correct
way to put the battery carrier in is with the cells facing downwards. Then
the cloth strips on the back side of it are facing up and in the right
position to take any chafing from the sharp edged aperture. However, when
you do that the cells fall out while you are struggling to get the thing
into the radio, just to add to the fun. I wish I'd never started this.
I presume that either the way my 817 has been assembled has left not quite
enough clearance, or else the NiMH cells I got are a tad larger than normal
AA cells. Though I have never tried using ordinary cells, so I can't
confirm this.
--
Julian, G4ILO. (RSGB, ARRL)
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