My rover is also my commuter car, so my approach is somewhat different. I
use the 13.8 vdc from the car's electrical system for all my equipment. No
inverters, no generators, no computer logging (I am also a solo rover). I
run two larger gauge power cables directly from the car's battery through
the fire wall into the cab area. My Subaru Forester has the stock
alternator and battery. The DC power cables are fused on both the pos &
neg leads at the battery. One power cable goes to the various amplifiers
while the second one goes to the various radios. This helps to assure a
higher voltage on the radios when the amps are pulling 35 amps on transmit.
The car is usually left running at all times to keep the voltage up .... I
do notice the car's engine load down very slightly on transmit. This
simple approach does mean that I am power limited to around 30 or 35 amps
on transmit so I don't run any 400 watts amps, "just" the 150 watt size.
The antennas, 50 MHz thru 3456, are bolted to the roof and the steering
wheel is the rotator. 5.7 & 10 GHz are on separate tripod systems that get
deployed at each stop and are completely separate from the rover system. I
log on paper and after the contest I punch it into Rover Log .... goes
pretty quick. One of the fun things about roving is that it can be as
complex, or as simple, as you want to make it. That and its never right -
there is always room for improvement.
73, Jon
W0ZQ/R
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