First, I am totally clueless here, so please be gentle.
I am using my good old 1998 Leica dark green robot with the Hayes bluetooth radios.
It is 7 degrees (wind chill -9).
All my batteries are charged up, including the 4AA and 9V rechargeable I have been using a couple/few years now for the radios.
I got set up and took my backsite about 1000 feet away, no problem.
But the radios just will not communicate any more for the 1000 feet foresite.
What am I doing wrong?
Fire away.
"What am I doing wrong?"
Well, duh!!!!! It's too frickin' cold. Pay attention to your batteries. Some hot cocoa and oreos should remedy the problem.
Lead acid/alkaline batteries lose about half their capacity between 80F and 0F. You could try keeping them toasty with some chemical hand warmers inside a wool sock inside a plastic bag or something. If the temps get low enough you can plan on going through batteries roughly twice as fast as you normally would. My guess is they're just not putting out sufficient juice for the radios to work properly. Especially true if they're old.
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
I've got the same radios from Hayes using rechargeable batteries. After about 2 years I had to get new batteries because my old ones wouldn't hold a charge. If they are weak the cold may be killing them.
Thanks for the replies so far. By the way, the batteries are "nuon 2500mAh NiMH". I think I will do some jfgi'ing after supper.
Once was using an old Sokkia when it was -9° and only got 3 shots per battery! Luckily that's all we needed. COLD=:poop: for battery life
An old surveyor's trick:
Buy new batteries in the fall, peak performance in the winter, still strong for spring and summer, following fall, toss those batteries, buy new batteries, repeat cycle.
James above is right.
But, due to frugality, get you the hand warmers, and mittens and a plastic bag, to keep them warm.
It'll get ya through tomorrow.
N
:good:
Remote handsets for the radios, keep the radios in an inside pocket ... problem solved!! 50 below and they still work fine!
-JD-