What type/size of battery to use?

jrc · 06-27-2012, 06:51 PM

Usually a boat radio has two connections. One is the main power connection, it comes on when the boat systems are on and its connected to the battery that you are using.

The other connection is the radio memory, it is usually wired directly to one battery skipping the battery switch. This allows you to keep all your stations and clock when the battery switch is off.

So if your radio drained the battery all the way down, you may have lost your memory. I don't know if this can screw up the radio beyond just losing station and time. I know my radio has some weird modes, there's "off" and a really "off". Off has lights on the dials and fully off is dark.

My wife always complains that the radio is on when it is off with the lights on.

So you should have few connections directly to the battery, the radio memory and at least one bilge pump, plus sometimes the Mercathode.

06-27-2012, 06:51 PM	#6
jrc Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: NH Posts: 2,689 Thanks: 33 Thanked 439 Times in 249 Posts	Usually a boat radio has two connections. One is the main power connection, it comes on when the boat systems are on and its connected to the battery that you are using. The other connection is the radio memory, it is usually wired directly to one battery skipping the battery switch. This allows you to keep all your stations and clock when the battery switch is off. So if your radio drained the battery all the way down, you may have lost your memory. I don't know if this can screw up the radio beyond just losing station and time. I know my radio has some weird modes, there's "off" and a really "off". Off has lights on the dials and fully off is dark. My wife always complains that the radio is on when it is off with the lights on. So you should have few connections directly to the battery, the radio memory and at least one bilge pump, plus sometimes the Mercathode.