Tim,
Your experience with the Russian Radar remind me of working on a Russian Rebege
radar and mobile missile launcher in 94. My buddy was down in the launch tube
with an access door open to a high power supply. He dropped a LARGE diameter
screw driver and I swear plasma shot out of the launch tube. He was OK (hair
was burned off, stank bad) but it melted the 1/2 diameter shaft screwdriver in
half in a flash. The generator surged something awful but the radar was
fine.......
To the OP.
Getting back on topic. I drive to mountain tops and operate as a fixed station
running off batteries and the alternator. I manually connect a hot lead from
the engine battery to the station batteries that are cab mounted to charge them
up. I also carry a spare engine battery just in case I forget to disconnect
and drain everything down. I also carry a spare alternator.
I run a pretty cheap set up. Two group 24 deep cycle marine batteries in
parallel and a TGE batter booster to keep everything at 13.5 volts. I pull
about 35 amps on TX with the radio, amps, computer and cell phone on charge.
Lighting is by battery powered LEDs or a head lamp. I run my batteries down
from 12.4 to 11.3 volts in about 30 to 45 minutes depending on how busy I am.
FM is not busy but you call CQ constantly praying for an answer. The batteries
hold at 11.8 for quite a while.
I lost a cell in one of these batteries late Sunday afternoon last September
and it started pumping hydrogen sulfide gas into the vehicle. I was able to
take it for several hour since I had the doors off and hatch open. I was
never so happy to make the final sched with K8GP/R so I could bail out with a
sore throat and burning lungs. Having two batteries and the TGE booster (plus
a little stupidity) is all that kept me on the air. If this had happened last
January it would have been a disasterous event for my contest score (doors
closed to stay warm so I would have to have shut down).
Now after 4 contests on that set up I am seeing the batteries start to drain
down faster and take longer to charge back up. They may need replaced soon.
They are cheap but when you have to replace 3 of them in 2 years with something
better (6V golf cart batteries are ideal) it is more expensive in the long run.
I am looking at two options right now:
I pulled the AC off my rig years ago and I could easily put a dedicated
alternator in the compressors place. Isolation as described in earlier posts.
I may also go to an inverter generator and a 50A power supply. Its a lot of
extra stuff to drag along. Every field day I hear them sputter to a stop
because everyone forgets to fuel them, another thing to worry about.
Lots of great advice below. My set up works but it has risks and is far from
optimal.
73
John
KM4KMU
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