Railfan Technology > VX-150

had this radio for years and its been great but cant seem to get the right battery, i purchased a few after markets from ebay but seem like after a few months it will only hold about an hour on a full charge, whats battery should i purchase? current one is 1800 mah  , also is there another radio i should look into that would pull in signals better? or should i just stick with this one since its doin fine?

That's a good radio and if you're happy with it, I'd keep it. However, you need a working battery. I can suggest one company that has been around for quite a few years.  It used to be called "Mr Nicad" but the battery world has changed a lot since those days and now it called "Batteries America."   I bought some stuff from them a few years ago and it was good quality.  They may be slightly more expensive than some of the e-bay dealers but it may be worth it  At $40 to $50 for a battery pack, that's close to half the cost of the radio new.  Buying a $25 pack might not be a good investment.  You hate to fork over the extra bucks but sometimes you have to.

You said you had purchased other aftermarket battery packs.  I'm assuming that at least the first few times you used them you got good battery life out of a charge.  The reason I ask is, there could be a problem in the radio that is draining the battery quicker than it should.  If the battry life is normal when the packs are new, they that's not going to be the case.  Another question would be about the charger.  I'm assuming you are using a suitable charger.  Just a few thoughts.

If you want a cheap radio you could get one of the Boafeng radios.  Basically they are junk.  The transmitter has lots of spurious emmissions and the scann rate is really slow, however, the receiver is decent and the battery life is great.  The manual leaves lots to be desired also.  Mine was a 16 page booklet.  The manual for the VX-150 is probably 100 pages (I have the VX-170).  It's a decent receiver if you like to park on a frequency.  Scaning all of the AAR channels takes about 25 or 30 seconds.

John

Google has quite a bit to say about 'VX-150 batteries'. My thoughts are it's not the cost of decent battery but the cost of the gas and hotels wasted by missing train photos. It appears that the VX-150 does well for reception, originally by Vertex and now similar models by Yeasu. I have the FT-270 and FT-60 which are nothing short of amazing compared to hobby scanners.

My questions are if the battery pack is the same as the newer Yeasu radios? Curious that the heritage of the design appears to be Vertex and now marketed by Yeasu, I keep running into Vertex designs but I don't know if they are still around. I've been finding good OEM parts at HAM Outlet stores, but there are also Yeasu accessories available on line from many vendors.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/16 14:43 by TCnR.

Nomenclature:  A battery PACK is a sealed, rechargable power source for the radio.
                          A battery CASE is a holder for 6 AA-size batteries.  It will accept alkaline or rechargable (NiCad) batteries.


You may wish to try the  battery PACK FNB-83 directly from a retailer like Universal Radio.  It is a genuine Yaesu-branded part. @$30.

For times when the battery PACK is exhausted, Yaesu offers a battery CASE FBA-25A which holds 6 AA batteries.  Normally, one would fill it with
alkaline batteries or rechargable batteries.  The catch is that there is a protection circuit which prevents the cells in the battery
CASE from being charged through the radio.  The radio has a circuit which recognizes the battery PACK and allows it to be charged.
You would have to remove the rechargable batteries and charge them in a separate, purpose-built charger. 
The battery CASE is @$17 and is a genuine Yaesu-branded part.

I've used these parts on my pair of Yaesu VX radios for many years with good results.

Be Well,

Tim Colbert  K3HX

As Tim described, I use the battery CASE in my VX-170.  Use highest capacity SANYO Eneloop batteries NIMH and charge outside the case in a MAHA charger.  No dead batteries on the railroad now or since !

How many different batteries do you try before you ask yourself, is there some fault in the radio?  I have a hard time believing all the batteries are bad, and none can last more than an hour.  
​Don't know how to diagnose it, but there could be a fault with your charger, or the charging circuit in the radio.  Have you measured the voltage of the batteries when charged?
​Or their oculd be a fault in the radio that is causing them to discharge faster than normal.