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Reviews For: Icom BP-228 and BC-155A

Category: QRP Accessories

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Review Summary For : Icom BP-228 and BC-155A
Reviews: 2MSRP: 89.99+29.99
Description:
Ni-Cd battery pack and charger for the Icom IC-703 and IC-703Plus QRP transceivers
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.icomamerica.com/amateur
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0023.5
OE3SGU Rating: 2006-10-01
Not bad, but needs improvement Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Received my BP-228 together with my IC-703 and AH-703 in a special offer from a German dealer. The BP-228 works fine, but as the OM before said, you would expect more from a great company like ICOM. The BC-155A even does not show you the charging status, so you have to guess. The LED on it is useless. I wonder what they thought when making this poor accessories for a great Transceiver like the IC-703?
K7VO Rating: 2006-02-15
Small. lightweight, decent battery life--could have been better Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
The Icom BP-228 is a 9.6V 2800mAh external battery pack made for the Icom IC-703 QRP rig. The BC-155A is a featherweight switching power supply that delivers 12V at 0.5A and acts as a charger for the battery. The BC-155A accepts 100-240V AC input making it ideal for the traveler.

The pack isn't heavy and it's size and weight is reasonable to take along for picnic table portable operation with the IC-703. At 9.6V the IC-703 puts out a solid 5W and draws about 1.6A. With a reasonable transmit/receive cycle the battery can last for several hours but probably not the seven hours Icom claims unless you hardly transmit at all.

The whole setup is a bit clunky. You'd think Icom could have made a case for the pack and had it attach to the side of the rig much like what Yaesu did with the FT-897. The BP-228 is just a bare battery pack with a pigtail to attach to the radio's power connector. It's not pretty and certainly not sophisticated. I also would think they'd have gotten longer battery life with a NiMH pack.

There's nothing wrong with the BP-228 and LC-155A. I just expected better fit and finish and a better choice of cell than old fashioned NiCD C-cells from a company capable of the technical sophistication Icom has in other products.