The Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team | Ten-Cell AA Battery Holder

by Eric McFadden, WD8RIF

A rugged ten-cell AA battery holder is available from Batteries America (link); it's their part number 10AAT and, at the time of this writing, costs $6.95. The battery-holder comes with an attached Tamiya/RC-style connector which can easily be replaced with an Anderson Powerpole pair or a coaxial DC plug. (The photo above shows the Tamiya connector already replaced with a Powerpole pair.)

Stuffing this battery-holder with ten NiMH cells would provide a 12v battery pack. (The pack would provide closer to 14-volts when the cells are fresh from the charger.) Stuffing the battery-holder with alkaline or lithium primary cells would provide a 15v pack. The use of only eight alkaline or lithium primary cells plus two dummy cells would provide a 12v battery-pack. (WD8RIF has AA dummy cells available; SEORAT members may contact him about these.)

In his article (link), Phil Salas, AD5X, has concerns about using this sort of spring-contact battery-holder to power a load that draws significant current. Phil's application is to power an Icom IC-703 at the 10-watt transmit level. WD8RIF has determined that at the current drawn by his Elecraft KX1, this battery-holder performs very well; see his KX1 Mini Travel Kit for his measurements.

UPDATE: After using this battery holder for about two years I noticed one of the wires was slightly loose at its rivet. I was able to fix this by re-swaging the rivet using a pair of common pliers and a small (~1/8" diameter) ball bearing. (August 10, 2015)