TO: ALL WOOD COUNTY ARES MEMBERS (OFFICIAL)
ALL ARES AND NON-ARES AMATEURS ANYWHERE (INFORMATION)
FROM: KEN HARRIS WA8LLM ARRL DISTRICT 3
EMERGENCY COORDINATOR WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS INC.
WOOD COUNTY ARES BULLETIN NR 20.08 DATE: February 23, 2020
SUBJECT: WHEN TO REPLACE A LITHIUM BATTERY
The first thing to ask is, "What is a Lithium Battery?" Most electronic equipment today such as Radios, Computers, Terminal Node Controllers (TNC), games, etc., have some kind of computer Microprocessor in it. Now you ask, "What is a Microprocessor?" A Microprocessor is the brains of almost all computers.
A small Lithium Battery is used to keep a very small amount of current on the memory storage chips of the Microprocessor. As long as there is power on the Microprocessor the memory storage chips will hold their memory. But, if the main power is removed from the Microprocessor, the memory chips may be erased. To prevent this from happening, a very small amount of current is applied to the memory chips.
The amount of current is so low that the battery keeping memory will last five years or longer. Some manufacturers of electronic equipment suggest the Lithium Battery be changed every five years or so. The Lithium Battery is only about the size of Quarter and is normally around three volts.
If, for some reason, you turn a piece of electronic equipment off, and when you turn it back on again, it looks like it just came out of a shipping box, it may have lost it's memory. The cause may be the Lithium Battery is dead, or very weak. The first thing to do is see if still the programs are working. If it does, turn it off and see what happens. If it does the same thing, then it's probably the Lithium Battery. Don't take the equipment out and shoot it, it's not that hard to repair.
Ken Harris WA8LLM
WCEC
Wood County WV