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Kenwood TH-D72 battery vs. Yaesu VX-8r battery

Moleculo

Ham Radio Nerd
Apr 14, 2002
9,194
1,674
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From the moment I purchased the new Kenwood TH-D72, I've been comparing it to the Yaesu VX-8r series of radios in practically every way. If you've followed some of my posts, you've already seen my thoughts on the two radios. One aspect of comparison that I haven't discussed yet is the battery life and size comparison.

From left to right, here are the Kenwood TH-D72, Yaesu VX-8 extended life, and VX-8 standard batteries:
moleculo-albums-kenwood-th-d72-picture2472-kenwood-th-d72-yaesu-vx-8-batteries.jpg


The dimensions of the batteries are all pretty much the same with the exception of the width. The standard VX-8 1100 mAh battery is about half the width of the TH-D72's 1800 mAh battery.

So at this point you're figuring that the standard Kenwood 1800 mAh battery will last a lot longer than the VX-8 1100 mAh battery, right? Well, I did too, but I was dead wrong. I've compared these two radios extensively running and found that they both run about 8 hours with the standard batteries. These tests were performed with the GPS on and both VFO's monitoring active frequencies.

For reference, KA3GYI recently posted these findings on the power consumption of the TH-D72:
Here are my Kenwood's power measurements using Fluke 177 through DC in plug @14.2V, no battery attached, battery save off, no audio being RX
Single Band 113 ma
Single + GPS 137 ma
Single GPS + TNC 165 ma
Dual band + GPS + TNC 215 ma
Dual 162 ma

Whatever Yaesu is doing to manage the battery, they are doing it MUCH better than Kenwood. With a battery that is about 1/2 the width and 700mAh smaller, they are matching Kenwood's battery performance, making the overall unit smaller and easier to carry.

I know you're wondering how the Yaesu VX-8's 1800 mAh extended life battery compares. With the 1800 mAh battery in the VX-8, I get about 5 hours longer life than the Kenwood TH-72's 1800 mAh battery!

I hope you find this comparison useful!
 

I am looking at these devices for an APRS handheld and primitive text messaging, e.g. Skywarn reports and casual texts. I will see if I can find your other posts re. these HT's.

Have you controlled for active-processes between the Kenwood and Yaesu as may impact battery performance?

In the past Yaesu was guilty of leaving a light or a thermometer or a packet monitor running which would kill batteries.

Perhaps the Kenwood has something running in the background (maybe keeping the GPS link to overcome the slow GPS acquisition problem with the Yaesu) and that is killing the battery?
 
The TH-D72 just doesn't have that many "other" processes that can be turned off. It basically has three functions: radio, GPS, and TNC. Turning off either the GPS or TNC certainly helps extend the overall battery life.
 
Does the Yaesu keep the same resources active or do they go into a sleep mode to save power?

Perhaps the Kenwood could be hacked to provide the same power-saving effect?
 
I ended up purchasing the FBA-39 3xAA cell holder a few weeks ago. I got it primarily for backup reasons, but I didn't realize that it was only limited to 1 watt of power. I guess thats the nature of the beast with the regular AA batteries. I have yet to transmit using the cell holder though. Honestly, 5 watts isn't even enough for me. I couldn't imagine using 1 watts.
 
Does the Yaesu keep the same resources active or do they go into a sleep mode to save power?

Perhaps the Kenwood could be hacked to provide the same power-saving effect?

You can turn the GPS and APRS Modem off on the Yaesu. I'm not sure what else they're doing to conserve battery power, though.
 

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