of battery chargers was available for this common battery. With the exception of the PRC 349 and UK RT 350 which are 12 Volt (nominal), The Manpack and Portable sets and their chargers were almost all nominally rated 24V DC (Direct Current) to match the British Army's choice of 24 Volts to power its vehicle systems. The Direct Current Charging Units (DCCU) was used to float charge (provide a top up charge while the set was in use) the manpack battery, while it was mounted in a vehicle, using a clip in kit for example. It could also provide a full charge cycle over 4.5 Hours from flat, switching itself out of circuit when complete. (A clip-in kit locked the radio in a convenient frame for rapid deployment when dismounting, and had the charger as part of the installation.) There were a few exceptions where 24 Volts was not used in vehicles, such as in the General Service (GS) Landrover where a 12v system was used for example. A 12 Volt DCCU was provided. The Clansman 24V 4Ah Nickel Cadmium Battery was prolific and for convenience an Alternating Current Charging Unit (ACCU) was provided for use in barracks where up to sixteen batteries could be charged simultaneously or singularly. All of these chargers worked in the same manner, basically providing an appropriate charging current while sensing the battery temperature to detect when charging was complete, achieved by measuring the voltage across two sets of a series pair of silicon diodes in the battery itself. One series pair would sense the internal temperature of the cells the other series pair fitted close to the outer case of the battery to sense ambient temperature, the difference in temperature being used to determine the state of charge. One drawback of the Clansman 24V 4Ah NICAD is that failure of these diodes makes batteries unserviceable. A further problem was that if the diode connection became disconnected or intermittent due to insecure connectors or cable wear, charge end point was not detected and charging continued at full rate until battery damage occurred. In extreme cases batteries left on charge exploded due to internal gas generation. Capacity reduction due to partial charge cycles also occurred due to the 'memory effect' of the Nicad cells. A discharge/charge process could have prevented such failures, but was not provided for in either the DC or ACCU. Specialists can rebuild