Re: [IRCA] Kchibo's Top DSP Portable (D96L)-- First Impressions

[Guy Atkins <dx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Gary,

Thanks for your well done introductory review. Even if it does not end up
qualifying officially as an Ultralight, I think this model will be loads of
fun for the price.

A word or two on the lithium ion battery. it is NOT a proprietary battery!
It is cost prohibitive and unnecessary for most manufacturers to have a
custom battery (in effect, a "one-off") made for their product. Most
batteries available today, although there are a myriad of shapes, voltages,
and capacities, will fit a number of products.

Such is the case with the battery in the D96L. It is labelled "KL-1000", but
is identical to the "NOK General BL-5C" (see both Ebay seller's auctions for
a couple sources of this info). I work for T-Mobile, and I'm aware that the
BL-5C is a common size of 3.7V cell phone battery. The original BL-5C was
supplied by Nokia for many of their phones, but suffered an infamous recall
due to a fire hazard. Note that this problem was with the ORIGINAL BL-5C,
not the equivalents offered by different battery makers now. Here's a page
about the current status of Nokia's recall for their BL-5C, and includes
some photos: http://batteryreplacement.nokia.com/batteryreplacement/en/

Prospective buyers of the D96L or other Kchibo models using Li-Ion batteries
shouldn't be concerned, IMHO, with unavailability of replacement batteries
when the originals wear out. Kchibo was wise to choose such a widely
available model, and in fact made a "green" choice to help reduce the number
of single-use, non-rechargeable batteries thrown away and ending up in
landfills.

73,

Guy Atkins
Puyallup, WA USA
www.perseus-sdr.blogspot.com



> -------------------------------------------------------
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:15:22 EDT
> From: D1028Gary@xxxxxxx
> To: ultralightdx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, am@xxxxxxxxxxx,
>        irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [IRCA] Kchibo's Top DSP Portable (D96L)-- First Impressions
> Message-ID: <cc0.59b04946.37a2866a@xxxxxxx>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
<SNIP>

>
> The batteries are of a lithium-ion proprietary
> type,  and the supplied adapter is designed for 240V house current--
> meaning
> that none  of us has yet been able to get the batteries to show a full
> charge on the  radio's display.
>
> <SNIP>
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