hey everyone, If your field charger has an option to charge your battery from 0.2 - 2.0 amps which do you choose? For example: if I have a nicd or nimh battery of 600mah how many amps should I charge it? etc... Thank you

Choose something less than 2 times the capacity. In your case two times 600 equals 1200 mA or 1.2 Amps. Choose a setting close to 1.2 Amps and a totally discharged pack should take about 30 or 40 minutes to charge. If you choose a higher setting, it will charge faster but is harder on the pack. If for some reason you are in a big hurry, you can choose 3 times (e.g. 1.8 amps) and it should charge in only about 20 minutes. But I generally don't go more than 2 times for NiMh.

thanks, is this the same with nicd packs? and i'm just curious on how you are determining how long it will take ( besides the field charging beeping at you etc..)

Yes, NiCd and NiMh you can pretty much treat the same. NiCd is generally more tolerant of being overcharged, but the NiMh is also quite good about taking a charge at a low rate (C/10) or up to a 2C rate.

NiMH packs should never be charged above 1C. NiCDs can be charged at 2C, but I don't do it. It shortens the cells life.

There are NiCD cells rated for fast charging that will take 2 or even 3C, but few of our packs are built with these cells unless you order them specifically.
Dennis-

Set it to 0.6 amps