HT1250 Charging Oddity...?

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mainegrw
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Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Oct 16, 2017 1:10 am

HT1250 Charging Oddity...?

Post by mainegrw »

Hello! New member here who comes to you today with a question about the odd behavior of my HT1250s when they are charging. However first, I will fill you in on the whole story here:

I am an amateur radio operator primarily (extra class), and have dabbled for many years with both commercial, and ham equipment. The last time I really owned or operated on Motorola radios was about 7 or 8 years ago, and up until yesterday I had only one partially functional GP680 VHF portable with a battery and charger stored away waiting for repair. Yesterday, I visited a local communications dealer who was having a tag sale to get rid of some older gear, mostly wideband repeaters and Kenwood radios that couldn't be used on commercial systems anymore. To my surprise, there was a fairly large area of free stuff there, and I helped myself to a number of items including:

- 2x CDM1550LS+ mobiles, supposedly with various functional issues (emphasis on the supposedly part)
- 3x CDM1550LS+ heads, 2 of which are nearly brand new
- 2x HT1250LS+ portables, radio bodies only, and one very dead battery again supposedly both having functional issues

Other stuff grabbed included a Uniden Repeater of unknown function, a Kenwood TK-840 that I need to find programming hardware and software for, and a Tait T-2020 mobile that fascinated me...

Anyway, long story short, I brought all of the gear over to a friend's house last night as he has all of the parts and programming hardware test and program the HTs and CDM radios that I no longer have. Both CDMs powered up, one was labeled with test info, and was easily flashed with new programming, and worked well, the other supposedly wouldn't take conventional channels, and would work only in LTR mode, however again, we flashed a a group of new convention channels into the radio, and it worked flawlessly, after reconfiguring the audio routing, and the unneeded option boards. The HT1250s both powered up with a fresh battery, one operated normally, and was able to be read and written to from CPS, the other showed a "EEPRM CS ERROR" at first, and an attempt to recover it with a clean codeplug was met with failure, however flashing the exact programming from the other 1250 into it brought it back to life, and we were then able to read and write to it. Essentially, at this point I had gotten $400 worth of good Motorola radios for free.

Later yesterday, I dug out my old GP680, charger, and much to my surprise, still good battery, and used one of the two HT1250 LS+ radio bodies and LCDs to resurrect the old gal. Disappointingly, the programming was not as I had remembered leaving it, containing only NOAA weather broadcast channels and nothing else.

Here's where things get odd: When I put either the GP680 or the complete HT1250LS+ on the charger, Things will act normally for a while, but at some point the radio will start to flicker on and off, even when the radio is in the off position. Either radio's backlight will flicker on, and the GP680 will show the "GP680" on the screen briefly, and will sometimes beep. The first time this happened it left me curious, and after throwing the HT1250 on the charger overnight tonight, I awoke this morning to a fully charged battery with the green light on the charger lit, but the radio display flickering on and off, again while the radio was in the off position.

Has anyone seen this before? Would I be correct in assuming it's a sign of a bad charger? The battery and the radios otherwise appear to be fine. ANy thoughts would be appreciated, thanks!
mainegrw
New User
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Oct 16, 2017 1:10 am

Re: HT1250 Charging Oddity...?

Post by mainegrw »

I would like to add to my initial post that the battery, despite having taken a charge does show erratic power levels on all three of the HTs I have so I assume that after sitting for the last 8 or so years its days are numbered. Also, in case you all were wondering, the charger used is a standard Motorola charger, and the battery is a standard 7.5v Ni-MH pack, possibly an aftermarket, though I'm not sure.

At this point I'm already planning on ordering 2 HT Refurb kits, program cables (CDM & HT and yes, I already have a copy of CPS and RSS for the GP680), so I might as well throw in a couple batteries and at least one charger. An additional question for you all: I know that the IMPRES batteries require the IMPRES charger, however I see loads of aftermarket Li-ON batteries for sale on eBay, and it makes me wonder if they would be compatible with the standard charger?

Thanks again, and I know I'm a bit out of date here with these radios, however I find them to be excellent equipment, old as they may be. That said, if anyone has a lead on crystals and batteries for a 1968 HT200, I'm working on refurbishing one of those right now as well...
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