Jim
I've had the internal battery pack in my K2 almost since day one (back
in 2001). The whole package feels like it's filled with bricks once you
put the battery in, it certainly stays where it's placed on the shack
bench. I've operated QRP CW for a day on the internal pack without
issues, however gel cells will become downgraded if deeply discharged on
a regular basis... The good news is they aren't very costly items to
replace every couple of years or so. With the internal pack you need
more than the normal 13 to 13.8 Volts from your bench power supply to
charge it, I tweaked the output voltage on my 3 Amp bench power supply
to 14.2 Volts. If you use the DSP, SSB and other additions to the K2,
these will erode the endurance while operating from the internal battery
pack. The operating time in the KBT2 manual is based on the K2 drawing
150 mA on receive, mine is reading 200 mA more than that (it includes
SSB, ATU, 160m and DSP).
An external gel cell would need a dedicated sealed lead acid battery
charger, they are available from many hobby electronic shops, or there
was an article in the ARRL hand books showing how to make one.
73 Dave, G4AON
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