ok one of the leads on the battery broke off last night... so I'm thinking there simply was a bad connection, but it was an opportunity to check the current.
I checked the current, and with the dial at 200m it read 108.5... and I watched it slowly drop to 105.6 before I resoldered the connection... not totally sure what these numbers mean or how to interpret them.
It seemed to work for 1 hour and then turn off... I'll try it again tonight.