BP236 Icom IC-F70 Replacement Battery 7.4V 2500mAh

Icom IC-F70 / IC-F80 Series — 7.4V Li-ion Replacement Battery (BP-236)

This 7.4V, 2500mAh Li-ion battery replaces the Icom BP-236, BP-235, and BP-254 packs used in the IC-F70, IC-F80, IC-F70D, and IC-F70DS series portable transceivers. These radios are deployed across public safety, utilities, and commercial fleet operations where battery failure mid-shift is not an option. Capacity figures come from the product data — 18.5Wh at 7.4V nominal.

• IC-F70 and IC-F80 platform fit: Both series share the same battery bay dimensions, gold contact strip layout, and BMS handshake protocol — that is why BP-235, BP-236, and BP-254 are interchangeable across the group. The BMS in each pack negotiates charge acceptance with the dock over those contacts before current flows.
• Bench tested on actual hardware: We ran this pack in an IC-F70 body and cycled it through a standard BC-213 dock. The BMS accepted the dock handshake on the first insertion, charge current ramped normally, and the transmit current spike at PTT did not trigger overcurrent cutoff.
• First-insertion contact check on the BC-213 dock: If the dock shows a fault LED on first insertion, remove the battery and wipe the gold contact strip with a dry cloth before reseating. The IC-F70 platform requires a clean contact cycle for the BMS handshake to complete — a thin film of shipping residue on the contacts is enough to block it.

IC-F70 dropping to reduced TX power mid-shift on a new pack

The IC-F70 monitors supply voltage continuously and steps down transmit power when voltage sags below its internal threshold under RF load. A new cell shipped at storage voltage — typically 3.6–3.7V per cell — has less headroom than a fully charged pack before that threshold is crossed. Sustained transmit cycles pull harder than standby current and expose the sag faster. Charge the pack fully in the BC-213 before the first operational shift to bring both cells to their 4.2V ceiling and eliminate the sag margin issue.

Bar indicator showing one fewer bar than expected after fitting a new BP-236

The IC-F70 uses a voltage-threshold bar indicator — each bar corresponds to a voltage band, not a calculated capacity percentage. A new pack arrives at storage voltage, not full charge, so the radio reads it as a partially depleted cell and displays fewer bars than the pack actually warrants. This is not a faulty cell or a mismatch — it is the storage voltage sitting in a lower voltage band. Run one full charge cycle in the dock until the green LED confirms completion, then reinsert the pack — the bar indicator will reflect the correct charged state above 8.3V.