Icom M92D DSC Handheld

[SoonerSailor]

Originally Posted by SVNeko

An update on the HX851: Beware, after a year's use, the battery now lasts less than 3 hours on standby. It won't get through an entire watch. So if, like me, you planned to use it as a device to be worn on night watches so a MOB can relay his coordinates back to the boat, the short battery life will leave you with a nagging worry. Apparently realizing they had a problem, SH now puts a longer-lived battery in the radio, but won't provide it to buyers of the weaker battery. They offered for me to ship mine back at my expense so they could "test" it, but doing that while on the go in Central America would be far too costly and troublesome. So if you planned to use it this way, be sure to get the better battery. For me, I will use my ICOM M92D, which lasts much longer, or a less bulky, non-GPS handheld and hope the MOB can see the boat's lights.

Any Lithium Ion battery will degrade over time. This will happen more rapidly if kept charged to 100% all the time, and at higher ambient temperatures. It will also degrade more rapidly if left in a completely discharged state for prolonged periods.

I don't know if any of these conditions apply to your situation, but they are worth keeping in mind. Even under non-severe use conditions a lithium ion cell will lose a substantial portion of its capacity over a period of only three years.

I always buy the AA cell holder for my handhelds to be sure I have a backup to the Li-Ion battery.

Chip

[galacticair]

Originally Posted by transmitterdan

Just received new HX851 from Defender and it came with the 1380mAh battery. Charged it yesterday until full (about 4 hours). Has been running in scan mode with intermittent reception of weather forecasts for 12 hours. No indication of battery low level yet.

I suspect unless you are shopping on used sites or grey market you will get the latest battery.

I just got an HX851 from Hodges Marine and it also came with the newer 1380mAh battery (FNB-121LI) so you seem right that the new battery is widespread. The manual still references the older 1150mAh battery (FNB-V99LI), but has an insert on the new battery. Both are 7.4V, so that's a 20% increase in capacity. Nice to have...

Also, here's a shout-out to Standard Horizon support: I needed a 220V wall charger cable (NC-88C) as the radio will be used internationally. I emailed SH support to ask where to buy it (it's very hard to find online, including eBay), and they told me they had one in stock and would ship it to me for free, no questions asked. Rarely ever see that kind of service -- certainly gets my vote!