I just bought Two of these distress markers and need batteries
BA-1328/U (no longer made) any suggestions?

Mike
Picture below

odd shape, my bet is they are not batteries but a battery pack propritary to those markers. Either open them yourself and replace the cells or look into one of the pack rebuilding companies.
Individual cells can be ordered from places like digikey and mouser.

This website appears to show the same distress light and suggests a workaround that uses regular AA batteries. AA's are similar in size, but just from reading that page, it seems that the BA-1328 have both the positive and negative contacts at one end of the battery, so the trick is to mimic that arrangement. By wrapping the AA in foil so that the foil reaches the positive end of the AA battery, both the positive and negative terminals can make contact when you put them into the light. I assume that you can do something similar with a thin strip of metal, too.

Just make sure that you don't short circuit the battery by letting the positive and negative terminals connect directly. Good luck!

Eugene, it only looks like a "pack", there is two seperate compartments for batteries.

Arney, I saw the same website maybe that's what I need to do

And this is important to condsider whenever you buy anything that requires proprietary batteries. Whether you're talking about lights or cameras, you will come out ahead if you can just use a AA.

The Battery Wholesale stores in my area advertise they can get or make batteries for anything. Give them a look and see what they can do for you.

But then they are going to be rechargeable and you need to be able to recharge them and rechargeable batteries are not good for emergency items as they don’t hold a charge.


Maybe a better solution is to take them to a local TV repair shop (not a chain store) and ask the guy to see what he can come up with to make them work on AAs.

I’m sure it’s an easy thing to do, I do stuff like this all the time.


What voltage is printed on the battery?

Give these guys a call, (Fair Radio) they have an unbelievable number of military items. I’ve been to the store in Lima Ohio and it’s amazing what they have, you can't really describe it, it’s an interesting place. They will probably have what you want, or have the parts to adapt other batteries or know someone that will have the parts you want. No one has a better knowledge-base about military electronics then Fair Radio.


http://www.fairradio.com/

I rooted around the web a bit and found something interesting:
http://lazycat.jp/battery/battery01.htm

My Japanese is lacking but if I follow the pictures it points out that the BA-1328/Us are pretty close to a AA battery. Difference is that contacts are both on one end on the BAs. Which is an issue but, as the pictures seem to show, some AAs have shells underneath the plastic label that bring the negative up the battery and this is similar to what you see on the BAs.

The AAs might be a little thinner, particularly after you remove the label, but a wrap with duct tape should make up the difference.
If the existing steel shell isn't a good enough contact or you need a shoulder up top I would use some copper foil, available at a craft store. Handy stuff to have around.

I think that with some handcrafting and experimentation you might be able to make a substitute for the batteries you need. Dependability and reliability will very much depend on your craftsmanship.

On the other hand these distress markers were originally intended for emergency use. I'm not sure I would be trusting my life in rough conditions to lights that are over thirty years old and handcrafted batteries. At the very least you might do well to consider that while these units were state of the art in the early 60s or 70s they very much represent obsolete technology. There are better units available now.

I have no connection to these folks but this represents a fair selection of what is available:
http://lrse.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=111

For real emergency use, particularly if you likely to be in a difficult environment, like at sea, I would go with the USCG/SOLAS approved strobe:
http://lrse.com/detail.aspx?ID=727

It isn't cheap, $69. You might find it cheaper elsewhere. But alone on a dark and stormy night twenty miles offshore in cold sea isn't the time you want to find out you should have sprung for the slightly more expensive light.

If your substitute batteries work you could still use the distress markers for less demanding jobs, like as substitutes for road flares in your vehicle. Or to let the pizza delivery guy know which house to come to.

Recycling is good but there is a time to move on and pension off the obsolete gear to lesser jobs.

When your life is very much on the line you don't want to be regretting your thrift.

Bob, there are no batteries withthe distress signal (they were $4.99 at a military supply store in Northern Utah)

So I'm thinking that I may have to ask at my local National Guard HQ to see if some one can help

Thanks
Mike

Take it to a TV repair shop and let the guy look at it and ask if he can rig it to run off a 9-volt battery or a few AAs. It can’t hurt to ask him.