In a message dated 3/5/2007 8:33:11 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
tentec-request@contesting.com writes:
For some time now I have been toying with the thought of putting together a
battery system to run my station during emergencies . I have however little
knowledge and no training or experience on how complete such a project .
My station consists of a Orion II , Centurion amp and a computer. Can anyone
point me in the right direction for help in building such thing ? thanks
John Molenda kb2huk
==========================================
easiest way to do this is to get a west mountain radio PowerMate. this goes
between the power supply and the radio with one connection to your battery.
it charges the battery at either 1 amp or 5 amps depending on which model you
buy, and automatically drops the charge rate when the battery does not need
as much.
when the power goes out it instantly switches over to the battery to run the
radio. these are about $50 or so but very convenient.
I run mine into a couple of sealed lead acid batteries ( three at 33 AH
each) from my mobility scooter cast offs, but any sealed deep cycle battery
would
work, or a standard deep cycle battery in a box outside with short power
cables into the shack. I get my SLA batteries from Spinlife.com, with free
shipping over $100 . if you use several in parallel, they run a longer time.
the nice thing is they charge when ever the power supply is on and over a
period of a few days, even a deeply discharged battery comes up. figure a 25%
heat loss, 120 amps in to the batteries for 100 AH would take a couple of
weeks with 5 hours a day operation, but you seldom draw them down so you
really
don't care. try not to discharge them below 60% and they last a long time, ,
like years.
this make it an automatic deal, just hook it up and forget it.
only problem I have is the orion , the 746 pro and the ts 2000 don't like 12
volts, the screens get waco on pure battery. they want 13.8v, but the rest
of the rigs, ( scout, corsair II, omni c triton IV) will run for hours on the
backup batteries.
hope this helps
tom N6AJR
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