Hello operators.
As many of you already know, there are quite a few portable power Builds on the channel. Sometimes for whatever reason, operators would prefer to have an off-the-shelf solution rather than bespoke building and sourcing the components themselves. Fair enough. When that happens operators ask which batteries or battery manufacturer could I recommend.
Well, most of the cookie cutters would say Bioenno Power, but doing the research, I found a company from the North American Pacific Northwest, who offers off-the-shelf portable LiFePo4 power. They have two packs which should be interesting to the ham radio field operator. One is a 10ah LiFePO4 pack. The other, a 7ah LiFePI4 pack. These packs have battery Management Systems built in, but are significantly cheaper than equivalent packs from Bioenno power. That company is Dakota Lithium.
Being one who loves to do the research and documentation on everything with my builds, I was pleasantly surprised about the quality of documentation offered by Dakota Lithium. They’re up front about the numbers, they’re upfront about what’s inside their packs, and they can answer expert questions about LiFePO4 packs.
I have to tell you, I have an acute hostility towards marketing speak. Saying something is for “ham radio”, isn’t enough to get me to pay 20 to 30% more, especially if you’re hiding what goes inside your packs. Moreover, I have no way to know the level of quality I’m getting for that price, right. I would prefer the technical specs thanks. Dakota Lithium doesn’t bother with any of the marketing brouhaha. Instead they just give you the technical specs, and a few good pictures. This should be more than enough to help one make up their mind. The prices are also about 20 to 30% less expensive, than Bioenno Power.
These packs of course are for North America. I’m not sure if they ship overseas yet, but we’ll tackle UK, Europe and Scandinavia in another post. I’m already doing the research. If you’re in another part of the world and you have a supplier for lithium iron phosphate packs with built-in battery management, add it to the comments, but only if you’ve used them and have experience with them. You can also share your own battery builds. That might help some of the operators who are apprehensive about diy building, open up to the idea.
Finally, Dakota lithium didn’t pay me to write this post. In fact I doubt they even know I exist. I know them because their packs are integrated into products from other companies I deal with. I don’t really have any issue with Bioenno other than the marketing trickery they use to add the perception of “added value” and cost to the packs they sell. One is free to buy or build whatever they like, provided we have all the options.
Don’t forget to follow my portable off-grid power for amateur field communication series.
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Julian oh8stn
