Few months ago I bought a Baofeng UV-82L so that I would have a 5W
dual-band handheld, since the little UV-3R has been stuck in the car on a
fixed frequency.
Seconds
after paying it I realised Baofeng UV-82L does not have a DC socket for
recharging or powering the unit: it works off the battery and it
requires the charging base. Not so practical if you are often on the
move, or you don't want to keep the base on the desk all the time.
That
said, the transceiver works as expected. Being confined to "memory
mode" (without power-cycling it) is not a big deal once local repeaters
have been programmed. But yesterday I did a painful discovery. I was
checking if a friend was still up on a mountain and I moved around the
flat with the UV-82L in my pocket while doing other things. Then I heard
a /P station calling on the VHF direct frequency for mountain op's and
engaged a QSO with him. During a transmission I felt a mix of
burning/biting in my hand holding the radio ... right there where
battery contacts are located!
My palm,
slightly salty-wet from Summer sweat, was draining current out of the
Lithium battery pack. I haven't had time to double-check with a resistor
and ammeter, but most probably there is no reverse-discharge protection
diode into the battery pack. There is no fix.
Edit. I confirm, positive charging terminal is connected to the positive battery lead going to the radio. Same goes for ground terminal. At least in my BL-8L battery pack.
