The snow has been melting fast and I managed to get the truck all the
way up the hill to my shack today. (Monday) On Saturday, it was
impossible. The truck got stuck in the snow drifts even with 4WD. So I
celebrated when the road was clear, and took a K3 up to populate the
10M/6M position and also drag my new and humongous 300 AH Lithium
battery up there and plug it in to the existing solar panels. The panels
are two Evergreen solar panels made before the company went "belly up".
Of course this was just after getting a huge gift of money from the
Federal government. Anyway, they will produce about 450 watts when the
Sun is out and they are busy charging the new battery up to full charge.
My plan is to enlarge the Solar collection system and I have two new and
bigger panels that each produce 455 watts for a total of around 900
watts or double the capacity of the old panels. Not sure how to install
them, but I think they will be ground mounted with a frame that will
allow up to four panels. That gets awfully big for a 12 volt system, so
I am still thinking this through, but my plan is to allow for permanent
electrical power up there to allow remote operation from home year
round. I might need 2 X 300 AH batteries to accomplish this task. All
this work just because it is a good location!! Ham radio can be a lot
like owning a boat or an airplane!!
My hope is to eventually run a solid state 500 watt output amplifier on
144 and 222 off of battery power. Everything is expensive, but one
thing most people overlook is the cost of a charge controller that takes
the Solar panel voltage and converts it to 12 VDC charging current. To
get maximum benefit you need a MPPT controller. (Maximum Power Point
Tracking) They are expensive, and I have to upgrade mine to handle the
additional charging currents of the new panels. An MPPT controller is
basically a programmable DC-DC converter that searches out the best
voltage that will deliver the most power. Mine currently will supply 45
amps. I think I need to add another 60 Amp model at a minimum!
I hope to be on 222 MHz again for Tuesday night starting at about 2300
UT. The plan is to be on 222.100 on CW and SSB and then move off the
calling frequency as activity shows up. Last week I think I made 25
contacts and followed that up with some 222 MHz aurora QSOs on Thursday
night. On Thursday I quit when the AU died down after 9 PM. I did not
want to run my big diesel generator in hopes of a possible recurrence.
I think the aurora was back later after about 0230 UT and I missed it.
Now that I have the Lithium battery installed, I can monitor the band
without the genset running. That will be a big help.
The Hepburn Map does not look promising for Tuesday night. Even the Gulf
is not so hot. Don't let that slow you down though. The activity levels
all winter have been great and many contacts have been made out over 300
mile paths by lots of folks with dead band and wintertime condx. Please
make an attempt to get on and be sure to log in to the ON4KST Chat
page (144/432 Region 2) if you might need to set up a sked and have
someone look for you. Activity usually lasts between 23:00 and about
01:00 or a bit later as conditions and activity warrants.
73
Dave K1WHS
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