With the price for electricity going up I have decided to reduce power used by my ham station from the mains network.
The first stage was a small system for using solar power for a part of the station.
Stage 2 I have shut down more of the radios.
My current setup looks like this:
1. My old 7/21/50MHz hand held used as a receiver for 50MHz FT8, running on solar/battery (24/7)
2. The IC705 running HF operation, 5W and mostly CW, solar/battery (day and evening)
3. The IC703 for 10m beacon monitoring on 28.200MHz, solar/battery (day and evening)
4. IC910 2m and 70cm, mainly used for local FM traffic, running on mains power (day and evening)
5. Kenwood TM-D700 running stand-by on local 70cm and 2m RX, mains power
6. Occasional use of the IC7300 for low HF band or 50/70MHz operation
7. Occasional use of the IC7600 for 50MHz band operation
The multiband dipole and the R6000 vertical for 10-12-15-17-20m have been connected to the IC705 with a coaxial switch. This removes the IC7600 from quick use for the high HF bands, and makes the IC705 usable on almost all bands, 6-10-12-15-17-20-40-80m. I still miss 4, 30 and 60m here. Maybe adding an extra dipole for those bands to the multiband dipole will do the job, if there is not too much interaction?
With another coax switch the 30m "long wire" antenna can be connected to both the IC7300 and the HB-1B. The HB-1B can do 30m, but not 60, the iC7300 can do 160 - 4m.
As the IC910 draws more than 2A, just receiving, I need something different for daily stand-by operation for 2m/70cm FM.
At the moment the energy consumption from mains power is considerably lower than last year at the same time, but as I want more versatility and less power consumption I will have to develop the station further. I still have some low power receivers (scanners, HTs etc.) and that will have to be used with the solar power system for monitoring/scanning. More on that later.
The solar power system also has to be improved. More panels, bigger battery (batteries).
I also have to test the RF noise from more advanced solar charge controllers (MPPT types), and possible ways to reduce or fully eliminate RF noise from those.
3 comments:
For me, a 7 amp power supply, Elecraft K2 (QRP model), FT-818, a few straight keys, and efhw antenna. Small station, small power consumption. 72 de F8WBD Richard
When building my shack years ago I anticipated I would need solar power. Unfortunately never invested in it. Following you efforts with interest. Have no money to invest now since energy bills are consuming my finances. 73, Bas
@Richard: A very nice station setup for HF QRP.
My requirements are a bit higher, so I will need more energy available. Monitoring means that some radios will have to be on 24/7. Since I want to operate most of my radios on solar power I will have to improve the solar array, but also reduce the power consumption of my receiving/monitoring system.
@Bas: Yes, this looks like a vicious circle: Energy price going up, so you can make no investment to lower the price. Not good.
Her I had the luck of having invested, so now I need to do a fair amount of work to get a better solar power system (with battery storage) up and running.
73 and 72, de Jan
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