voltage?

[Nimrod]

I have a little AM, FM, shortwave, and weather band radio. It has an alert feature as part of the weather band but you need to leave it turned on all the time for that to work. This drains the batteries really quickly. You can buy an AC adapter for it but it's really expensive. The adapter will keep it powered up for the alert and recharge the built in battery. It's supposed to be 6 volt.

I found 2 adapters in the Salvation Army that are 6 volt but when I measure their output with the voltmeter they are about 9 volts. How critical is the voltage? Why are these adapters not accurate? Am I going to blow up the radio if I plug one into it?

[SpaceCadet12364]

That 6 volts is with a load on it. check amps out and see if it is enough to power radio.
radio should tell load on a lsbel some where. 6 volts X amps or m-amps. adapter should do the same output 6volts x amps. as long as adapter puts out more amps/current don't worry.
open 9 volts sounds right.

[agmantoo]

You need to also determine the polarity of the particular adapter to verify that the unit matches the radio. You do not want to put reverse polarity to the radio. You can use this to aid in your answer http://www.bustedgear.com/faq_Wall_w...bstitution.htm

[fixitguy]

I paid about $20 for a universal adapter with all the different plug ins attached.

[Nimrod]

I only paid $35 for the radio. I refuse to pay $20 for the ac adapter. The ones I got from SA were a dollar each.

I hooked the up the one with the highest current output. It charged the internal battery just fine but if turn the radio on, you get a 60 Hz hum along with the radio reception. Guess I'll use it for charging the battery and in standby mode for NOAA's weather alerts.

[Harry Chickpea]

Drop a .5mfd capacitor across the leads from the power supply. It should minimize the hum.