More Solar and Battery Power.

Last year I got a couple of 24V/100Ah LiFePO4 batteries and the plan was to use them as power supply for 24 - 28V power amplifiers, and as extra capacity for my two older 12V/100Ah batteries.

The 12V system has been used with 3x 100W solar panels, and has supplied a few radios with power in the period from mid February until beginning of November last year. In the dark months I needed to help charging from the mains power, but now the same radios can be supplied with solar power again. It's likely that I will add more panels and an extra charge controller or two to the 12V system.

The total capacity of the 12V system is about 2.5kWh, and I have used it with my power hungry IC-9700 and a bit of other radios. It's possible that I will add a bigger 12V battery later, for a capacity of about 6kWh.

Enter the 24V system. The plan is to add the capacity, so I will have a total of about 7 (or 9) kWh at the radios, using a simple DC/DC charger from 24V to 14V, with constant voltage/current setting and some switching control.

Some more solar panels need be added to th 24V system. I have some already, but I need to get them mounted.

I have found some reasonably priced 450W panels, and I will likely add a few of those to the system.

I have a small and a larger power station(s) that will likely be added to the system. Also, I have some LiFePO4 cells, so I can make a 12V, 24V and possibly a 48V system for the workshop upstairs.

A tiny system for lights and audio in the bedroom is also under construction. Yes, there are many smaller and a few larger projects to build here, along with the radio experiments.

More Solar Power for the Shack.

July and the beginning of August has been low on the radio activities. Mostly because of traveling (and the preparations). Now I should be getting back to some radio.

But first, solar power:

Today I made a small improvement of my solar power system in the shack.

The old system had just 2x130W panels (designed for 12V systems).

Those are now replaced with 4x100W panels in series. How will this work with the 20A MPPT charge controller I am using? We shall see. The absolute peak voltage of the panels is less than the 100V open circuit the controller can handle, so having 4 panels in series, providing less than this is quite acceptable.

The current/total power handling is another matter. The peak power of the panels is 400W. This is only achieved with the panels fully illuminated with direct sunlight, at right angles to. While this happens sometimes I am hoping the controller will be able to handle it.

The controller spec says that it will limit the charge current to 20A, so I hope it will work nicely.

The lower light charge current with the 2x130W panels was quite low, down to about 300mA which cannot get the batteries fully charged every day. With the 4x100W in series, this looks more promising, but as I have just made the modification, I will need to check this in the coming days, so after some more tests I will write another post on this.

I do have another of the MPPT controllers,  and I have the idea to mount some other solar panels connected to this controller, for boosting the possible charge power.

For this I want to use two or three sets of 4x50W panels, mounted for "seeing the sun in different directions:

- One set on the South wall of the out-house, for winter/low angle sunlight.

- one at the West wall of the main house, for catching some late afternoon and evening light.

- maybe one at the other end of the garden, for catching some morning light.

While this adds up to a total of 600W peak power, I think that this will never be reached from this system, as the optimum angles for the 3 panel systems are too different. I suspect that it will end up providing max 300W for charging the shack battery.

Even in the winter this system should be able to power a minimum set of radios for some monitoring, but I do suspect that in midwinter it will probably need some assistance from mains power charging, if I want to operate more radios. We shall see.

FT8 Monitor Now On 6m. And IC-X02 update.

The receiver in the portable (handheld) CB radio, a multimode from Albrecht, I was using for 10m FT8 monitoring looks like a very poor choice. I have used it for 10m FT8 monitoring for a while, and while it does work, it is not very good.

If I will venture a guess, it is due to a poor performance of the PLL circuit. The FT8 signals look very wide, so I suspect excessive sideband noise.

The advantage was a relatively low power consumption, less than 120mA @ 12V. Good enough when using solar power.

The other reason to change is simply the season. It is the season for sporadic E (Es) propagation on the lower VHF bands, and occasionally on 2m.

So, for now I picked one of my FT817s to set up for FT8 monitoring. It does have a higher power consumption, 300-400mA @ 12V, but especially in the summer time it is working perfectly for 24/7 monitoring. The two inputs of the FT817 mean that I can also connect an HF or VHF/UHF antenna to the RX, and use it for FT8 monitoring for everything from 160m (630m?, 2200m?) to 70cm. One band at a time.

The 6m receive input is connected to the 6m part of my R6000 multiband HF/6m vertical, via a HF/6m diplexer.

This is the least efficient antenna I have for 6m, so if I can get signals on that one, it shows that 6m may be sufficiently open to make contacts with my station.

Small update on the IC-X02 transceivers:

As I decided to use those mostly for monitoring SSB/CW on 6m/2m/70cm, I decided to leave the two IC202s as they are, only making the modification of the power plug.

The 6m one got a cable through the hole for the power supply plug/cable, so an external power supply only is used. I removed the battery connection inside the battery compartment, so it can be used for experiments like adding a CW filter and other niceties. For the 6m band monitoring I still need to build an amplifier/power splitter, so I can use the monitoring on at least 3 receivers: 50313USB for FT8, 50100USB for SSB/CW and 515xx (or so) for FM monitoring.

The IC202 #2 has a modified connection to the power plug, so I can use my standard cables/plugs for this one.

The IC202 #2 (heavily modified) and the IC402 still need power plug connections modified. The IC202 #1 also still needs some detective work to see what the modifications are doing. One is a switchable audio CW filter, so that is a start.

A Bit More on the IC X02s and Propagation Monitoring.

 I have made some tests of the two IC202s, the IC402 and the IC502.

These are the preliminary results, essentially my notes after testing:

1) Ancient (my first) IC 202 #1 (2m):

Some modifications were made:

- Antenna connector changed to BNC and moved. PL connector disconnected.

- Telescopic antenna removed.

- Audio CW filter added with switch at the top. In working order.

- unknown veroboard with ??? circuitry connected to main board main connector.. Detective work needed.

- Some relay circuitry and ???. Detective work needed.

Most of the mods are in the original battery compartment, replaced with a copper clad PCB

- This one looks like it has a connector for an external VFO. Could be useful making a more stable LO. Need to find the appropriate info if I want to build/connect one.

- TX out CW: 30mW Detective work needed.

Use as back end for transverter ot down converter?, or just 2m monitor (144.300)?

2) Also a quite ancient IC 202 #2 (2m):

- PL connector replaced with N connector (good move).

- Some Veroboard modification at the mainboard main (long) connector. Detective work needed. Looks like RF output power control circuit. 

- This one also looks like it has a connector for an external VFO. Could be useful making a more stable LO. Need to find the appropriate info if I want to build/connect one.

- Zero out put in CW. Detective work needed.

- Still needs a check.

Use as back end for transverter?

3) IC 402 (70cm):

- quick check, and seems to be in working order.

- Need to change power connector (I do not have any "male" 3-pin-plus ground connectors for power cables, so will likely let a filtered cable out through the power connector opening.

- TX out CW: just under 3W @ 12.5V Looks OK.

Build external VFO? (e.g. in the battery compartment)

4) IC 502:

- Checked the IC502. VFO looks rather unstable. Contact spray helped with RIT and a bit with the fine tuning. Still not quite good, but could be used for "fixed" frequency monitoring, e.g. +/-50.100.

Should probably (long term) be replaced by a Si5351 synthesizer w/Arduino control (e.g. in the battery compartment) 

- Need to change power connector (I do not have any "male" 3-pin-plus ground connectors for power cables, so will likely let a filtered cable out through the power connector opening.

- TX out CW: 2W @ 12.5V Looks OK

Final result: 

All radios seem to work fine in receive mode (a bit more testing, and maybe alignment, will be in order.

The '402 and the '502 appear to work nicely overall.

The two '202s need some work to get TX working properly again. Those could still be used as monitor receivers without problems.

Epilogue:

I do have some FT817s. One with a blown PA, the three others okay. Here is the thing:

I want to do as much general monitoring as possible on solar power. This means minimizing power consumption.

The IC-X02s use about 100mA @ 12.5VDC

The FT817s use 3-400mA. 

So for monitoring, I could power 3 or 4 IC-X02s for the power that the FT817 draws. Yes, I want those up and running.

The IC-X02s will not be suitable if I want to monitor digital modes like FT8. for that I need to use the FT-817, maybe later build some simple crystal or PLL controlled receivers.

Yes, still far too many things to try out.

Ancient Icom Radios: IC202 etc.

As I am trying to get more radios up monitoring different frequencies, here are a few things to consider:

First of all, building kits, and possibly modifying some of them are good for monitoring HF frequencies is a good idea.

Second, of all, for VHF monitoring, using the modern radios (with spectrum display etc) for all day monitoring, even when I am not close to the radios, seems to me like a waste of energy, as many of them use more than 1A, just in RX mode.

Enter the old IC-202. I have two of them, one heavily modified (I need to determine what I did with them), one that I got later, and it seems to be in order. Those are good for some SSB/CW monitoring, where the exact frequency is not all to critical. The great advantage when using them for all day monitoring, when in the house, but not near the radios, is the much lower power consumption. 

The IC202 is a 2m VXO controlled SSB/CW transceiver with max 3W out, and a stand-by RX current consumption of less than 100mA.

I have another old ICOM in the same family: The IC-402 for 70cm. About 100mA consumption on that one, too. Good for 70cm monitoring. When checking that one, I found that I had not removed the old Alkaline batteries, but the leak did not appear to have caused damage. 

The 402 could also be used as base receiver (or even transceiver) for down converters or transverters for microwave. 

The fourth transceiver found in the cupboard is the IC-502 for 6m. It covers 50-51MHz with a VFO, also with a current consumption of about 100mA. This one, I suspect will be a bit tricky to tune to the correct frequency, due to the larger coverage. For monitoring I may use one of the other transceivers to provide a "tuning aid".

I am trying to run more and more of my operation on solar power, so the power consumption will be critical, especially in the winter time when very little sunshine is available. Reducing the stand-by RX current to about 350mA for 6m, 2m, 70cm all-day monitoring is a big step forward, compared to several amps used by the "big" radios, just for general monitoring of 50/144/432MHz.

These radios will likely need to be checked and aligned, so here is another project for the late summer to winter activities.

Yes, the current solar power system still needs to be improved for winter use. Still, I expect to need to need topping up the battery storage in the months of December and January. That is okay, if I can use the station on (mainly) solar power most of the year.

Update: Did a check of the IC-502. 

The VFO frequency is rather unstable and very sensitive to very small movements in the casing.

Volume control and RIT/fine tuning (all with potentiometers)got some contact cleaning (without residue after cleaning), and so did the on/off/light switch.

The volume control and the RIT work perfectly now, as does the on/off/light switch.

I suspect that the fine tuning pot could get a better cleaning, as it still shows some roughness. This may require some disassembly of the set.

For now I will leave the set on for a while with low supply voltage (8V in place of 13.8V), to see if the electrolytic capacitors are in working order

I also have to remove the power connector, as I do not have a corresponding plug for the 3-pole connector mounted.

A modification for feeding power is needed. Probably using a cable soldered directly into the transceiver

For now, after a longer power-on test, I think that this set can be used as a monitor receiver for, say, 50.100MHz, the general CW/SSB calling frequency.

Current consumption with moderate AF out was about 90mA, as I expected.

For 50MHz general propagation monitoring I expect to use the 50MHz part of my R6000 for now. With a modest amplifier indoors, and a satellite/TV power splitter, I should be able to use that antenna for this, with at least two receivers connected:

- The IC-502 for SSB/CW

- The old Tokyo HyPower handheld for FT8 monitoring.

A Bit of Solar and Battery Activity, Restarted.

 Days are getting longer and that means more sunlight to convert into electric activities.

So, after the winter doldrums I restarted battery activities. Weather is too cold for outdoor activities, so indoor it is.

I restarted getting the Gel batteries up and running.

I have a set of 18-20Ah batteries that have been brought up nicely to about 14V with a total of 150mA current draw at 14.2V. Those should provide about 20Ah/240Wh of energy storage, and work nicely with a total panel peak power of about 100W, easily being charged, even on a non-sunny day at this time of the year In the winter season that will be a bit more tricky. For those I have been using a small switch mor´de power supply.

The next battery connected to the solar power system i the lab. The battery of the lab power system has a capacity of about 60Ah max. effectively and running with 2x 100W panels. I am using a current limit of about 500mA, and this should easily run the recharge of the 8Ah (or so) battery, without  heating the battery up too much.

I have one more battery with about 6-8Ah, that one seems to have a decent voltage, so it will have to wait.

The smallest of the batteries (4Ah) is currently running off a linear power supply with about 200mA current limit.

The smaller (4 - 10Ah) batteries are intended to run from small solar panels and charge controllers for smaller projects, such as monitor systems and maybe a small outdoor mounted (in the summer half of the year) small thest transmitter, used for e.g. range tests on the microwave bands, maybe even a very low powered QRSS or WSPR transmitter. Maybe also for some portable  operation, until I get some small LiFePO4 batteries up and running.

Then there are the LiFePO4 batteries:

For the shack solar power system I have been using 2x 12V, 100Ah batteries in parallel, and a charge controller for 20A (MPPT), connected to 2x 130W solar panels. This system could only power the IC705 during the deep of winter, especially Dec/Jan, so it needs improvements.

From the 100Ah LiFePO4 cells I have built a 12V/200AH system, and the intention is adding this to the shack power battery, giving me a total of 400Ah capacity. When full, the charge of this should last several days even with extremely low charging current. For the deep winter months this is still insufficient when longer periods of very low solar powermay only provide maybe 2Ah of charge. So the solar panel system needs to be considerably improved.

The current panel system is simply insufficient, so here is the general idea:

- Mounting a set of panels with 200W on the South facing side of the wall. This should provide maximum power in the deep of winter when the sun is down to a maximum of 12-13 deg above the horizon. This system should use its own charge controller.

- Getting two sets of 300W (total) panels mounted at an angle suitable for summer conditions. Even when there is very limited (or long duration cloudy weather) sunlight this should provide some additional charge, 

However, even with this system I expect to need the use of mains power at the lowest point, to keep the battery charge at a decent level. This can be done when the electricity price is really low.

Some of the LiFePO4 cells can be made into a better battery (effectively 100Ah for the upstairs lab solar power system, so I can retire (or re-purpose) the old Gel batteries.

The LiFePO4 battery, 12V - 50Ah could be added to the lab power system, or be used when going out in the field with the car. As that is an EV, the 12V battery has very limited capacity, so a "real" battery is needed for portable/mobile operation. There is no reason to use the much heavier Pb (Gel) batteries in the field, especially if they need to be carried around - up to a hilltop.

Finally, I still have 16 LiFePO4 cells left.

I am thinking of making myself a 24V - 200Ah (5kWh) battery which can be used with a 230V (pure) sine inverter, and a sufficiently large solar panel/charge controller system. This could likely be used in the summer season (when I drive more than in the winter) to charge the EV, especially when the sun is shining, a´with the battery as a buffer.  This is further into the future, the first priority is getting the shack system improved, and there is a lot of radio/antenna building in the planning this year. In any case, this can be a neat experiment, and if it is not useful for EV charging it can be used for the house, like the entertainment system.

Solar Power Changes.

Spring is not so far away. The solar panel output has been quite good.

The batteries are almost full in the afternoon.

It is time to connect more radios to the system.

The following  radios are now connected to solar power:

- The IC705, mostly running 10m at the moment, but with antennas (switched) covering 10-12-15-17-20-40-80m The dipole can also run 50MHz

- The HB-1B running 20-30-40-80 with the 30m long wire antenna

- The 10m FM monitor (Old CB radio modified for 10 FM)

- The IC703 running 10m, monitoring the 28.200 (International Beacon Project)

- The IC7300, probably going to run 10-6-4m - not on constantly.

- The 10m SSB capable hand held for FT8 monitoring

When the system has been expanded I expect to have some computing power using the solar system, so something like FT8 or WSPR/QRSS monitoring can be included. At the same time, some of the monitoring receivers should be with reduced power consumption. There is a lot to do, but as you see from previous posts, it is not *all* solar power related.

Adding Load to Solar Power.

For the winter the old load on my shack solar power system has been just the IC705.

The nice thing about the IC705 is the band coverage. All bands between 160m and 70cm, with the exception of 4m. Then there is the spectrum scope. That is a great feature. Third, the power consumption is only 300mA at receive. I am considering getting one more, but as the more advanced HF stations draw much more power, just receiving:

FT817: 400mA

IC703: 600mA

IC7300: more than 1A

IC7600: even more power than the 7300.

IC7100: I think it is below 1A, maybe about 800mA

In winter time with the current solar power system those on the list above cannot be run on solar power.

Today I made the beginning of a small  low power system:

Using a pair of computer speakers I connected the speakers to my 4-band CW QRP transceiver, the HB-1B, drawing only about 80mA capable of running 20, 30, 40 and 80m. The HB-1B only has a headphone output jack, so more audio power is needed for speaker volume. The HB1B does have a variable bandwidth crystal filer, and can be used for both SSB and narrow bandwidth CW reception without additional filtering. The system works nicely. Later the computer speakers may be replaced by a separate audio amplifier box (with additional circuitry) built into a single box. 

I intend to expand the system with more transceivers, and later some switchable filtering:

Split the inputs, so that one SSB/CW receiver goes in one audio channel and one more in the other. A third one can be added with the output evenly split between both inputs, creating a "centre channel".  One of those receivers could be the old PM2B set up for 20,40 or 80m reception. A repair/modification will be necessary for the 80m preselector, but that should not be too tricky. The PM2B is also very convenient to add to the monitor system, as the power consumption is only 20mA, easily added to the current solar power system.

This means that 3 different signals can be distinguished. Since these signals have a noise floor, the idea is to add 3 FM receivers in parallel, making the signals from 6 receivers distinguishable/audible via the 2 channel audio system. This requires a simple mixer system that I can construct without too much difficulty, making the monitoring of 6 different frequencies possible, as the FM receivers will be squelched, and therefore distinct from the SSB/CW audio.

Later some audio filters, and maybe equalizers and input switches can be added to this system. 

Small Update on Solar Power.

My modest system has not had a lot of juice in the deep of winter.

Right now the only radio connected to solar is the IC705, and it is running a few hours every day.

While the days are clearly getting longer here at this time of the year it is still very short days with the sun very low over the horizon. On top of that we have had a lot of cloudy time.

If the day is clouded right now, with the panels available the system is just generating a tiny bit less than the IC705 uses. With full sunshine, and we had a bit of it today, I can run the IC705 for many hours a day. The battery voltage, as I use the radio, keeps the voltage of the LiFePo4 battery at around 12.8 - 13.3V. I consider that acceptable. 

This year I will need to mount more panels when the weather permits, and also get a bigger battery up and running.

With this setup I should be able to run full station activity for about 8 months of the year - except for high power amplifiers. The remaining part of the year I estimate that I will still have to run parts of the activities on mains power. 

One more thing: Before next winter I should make a "backup plan", so I can charge batteries when the price of mains power is lowest. This may be semi-manual, or I may find a way to automate the process using data downloaded from the internet.

Then there is the use of low power monitoring receivers. Yes, I need to build some of them, and we shall see how much I will build before next winter. There are still possibilities with some older receivers that I can put into service for parts of this. I do not have to build everything.

Idea Box. QO-100 Downlink Reception.

For quite a while the setup for my QO-100 activity has been rudimentary:

For uplink I have used an old IC-821 as transmitter, with a lot of attenuation, followed by a low cost Chinese up-converter (BU-500) indoors, about 15m RG6 coax, with a so-called 8W WiFi booster that can deliver 2 - 2.5W without modifications, feeding a 4x patch "WiFi antenna and a 1.1m dish reflector.

This provides a decent signal on the downlink side, and certainly never overloads the transponder (triggering LEILA).

For the downlink I am using a 60cm dish, a low cost synthesizer controlled LNB, modified to be controlled by an external 25MHz reference signal.

The 25MHz reference oscillator is indoors in the shack in order to minimize the temperature drift. As this is an uncompensated DIL oscillator there is, of course some drift, up to a few kHz to each side. Actually not too bad for such a simple setup.

The LNB converts the the 10489MHz signal down to 739MHz, so for now I have used an older AOR multimode scanner receiver, the AR8600. This works, and I have made some QSOs, and often participated in the Danish-speaking net on Sundays. It is a bit inconvenient with the drift, as I have to compensate by manually checking the AR8600 frequency for the beacon, and then remember to calculate the offset.

Further, the IF filters in the AR8600 are low cost ceramic filters, so for SSB and CW the selectivity is not what I am used to from my HF/VHF transceivers.

Here comes the idea: The AR8600 has an IF output on 10.7MHz, with a bandwidth of 4MHz. Why not use that to feed one of my HF radios? That way I can use the better filters of the HF radio. On top of that, a quick manual compensation of the LNB frequency drift can be made by switching to one of the beacon frequencies and retune the AR8600 so the beacon is in the pass band of the IF receiver. Then the recalculation of the offset becomes unnecessary.

This is the simplest way to improve the downlink receive system with the equipment I have at hand.

It does require using two radios, as the AR8600 is simply used as a second down converter.

If I want to eliminate the AR8600 from this there is another idea. This requires more construction, so I think I will use the AR8600 in the first instance.

I have some older TV tuner modules with synthesized local oscillators. With a bit of programming of the synthesizer chip using a microcontroller, the Arduino or the like, this can function as a down converter to an IF of 28-40MHz. One little disadvantage is that the TV tuner as-is inverts the IF band. 

This can be eliminated in two ways:

1) a second down converter inverting the band once more. This adds complexity to the system, but can be done without too much building.

2) retuning the RF filters of the tuner, so the LO moves below the signal input frequency. This is the simple way, but requires more test equipment. I do have enough test equipment to do this, so if I go the TV tuner way, this is the likely way to do it.

For now, the AR8600 with HF receiver will be the way, after all the Christmas activities. I am looking forward to improving my QO100 setup.

I am still looking into what next year's "challenge" will be. It should require some activities from my side, on the other hand it should also be fun.

I do think that a part of this will be running the most used parts of my station on solar (with battery backup, of course) hopefully on solar power, even through the winter. I may have to switch parts of it on mains power in the poorest sunlight conditions. The really power hungry parts, like big linear amplifiers will be running on mains power in any case, but they will not be running a lot in any case.

Using only the IC705 in December I have been able to get the battery up to 80%, but that has been with saving the time I was using it.

Working in the ARRL 10m Contest With 5W and Solar Power.

 In the past week end I tried to extend the challenge again.

I worked all CW in an easy going search and pounce operation. With 5W and a 1/2 wave vertical that is a slow process, and I stayed on for some hours each day, with breaks for doing other stuff.

The end result was 41 QSOs in the contest, and I am quite happy with that result.

The battery had had the opportunity to get a bit more charge, as it had been used very little, so there was more than sufficient charge to work the contest as much as I wanted. At this time of the year the days are very short at 55 deg. North. But the system charged a little bit, even when the shy was clouded. This has been the case most days for a few weeks now.

Now for my challenge for this year.

When I received my IC-705 in January I set out to work at least 365 QSOs this year, and that is what I achieved in the CQWW CW contest. 

I then extended the challenge: Doing the 365 on all solar power (and maybe 500 in total with 5W). This is a bit of an estimate, as I worked with mains power in the beginning, but soon I got to do solar in full. 

The result after the ARRL 10m contest is above 500QSOs, and I do expect to do a few more before New Year.

With 500 QSOs on total I estimate that 365 of those have been made on solar power, so my challenge is a success.

Now I should think of a challenge for next year.

I have a few things I would like to do:

- expand the solar power system, so I can feed more of the radio station on solar power

- get to operate two-way on some microwave bands

- build some low powered system for more propagation monitoring

I do have some material for expanding the solar power system, but working in freezing temperatures outdoors does not work fro me. From spring time that work will resume.

For the microwave band working from home the same goes. No outdoor antenna work. I am in the process of locating a 23cm module and a TCXO for my IC-910, I have it somewhere, so in the process of tidying I should find those and get the 910 upgraded. First microwave band is possible in the spring when antennas can be installed.

I already talked about using some simple kits for some of the monitoring receivers, and/or extend their use with converters. 

We shall see what I choose for next year

Small Solar Power Update and More.

 The output from the solar panels has been very low the last several weeks, actually most of November.

I can hardly power my IC703 all day with the current solar input, even if it has improved a bit with the new MPPT charge controller. Some more solar panels should be mounted, but working outside in near freezing temperatures is no fun, so it may have to wait until spring, or if we get some mild and dry days. 

For just monitoring of the low HF bands 20,30,40,60,80m I should use the small Chinese built HB-1B CW transceiver when not at the radio desk, as it uses less power than the 703. The spectrum display of the 703, after all, is only useful when I am there looking at it ;).

With the current very high price for electricity I am looking more at reducing power consumption for the shack. The stand-by/monitoring system has been reduced at the moment until I can get some really low power gear built and/or put to use. Yes, there are options.

Then there is the heating. 

Recently I got an air-to-air heat pump mounted, and now it is finally connected to mains power in the correct way. Yes, I had the electrician here, and at the same time I got an outdoor connector made for charging my new "toy car" (yes, fully electric, running on batteries).

It does look like the mains power consumption is lower than last year, in spite of the fact that I used gas heating last year, and electricity to power the heat pump this year. It will be interesting to see how things will work when I get more solar power up and running. I am aware that going off grid is not possible with the garden I have available, especially in December/January, but any reduction of mains power usage is welcome.

CQWW CW on Solar Power, and My Challenge.

 The past week end I was very active on the radio front.

While I do not plan to send in a log, I made about 150 QSOs, giving many stations points for the CQ WW CW contest. All this happened with just 5W output, and the vast majority was done with my solar power/battery system.

Since the solar power input has been quite low the last few weeks, all the radios were connected to mains power in order to let the battery re-charge. At the same time I did not work too much radio.

After a few QSOs in the contest I decided to make this a mainly solar powered event for me. The IC-705 was reconnected to the solar power system and I worked all through the week end, with some battery energy to spare.

My QSO count with 5W this year is now 460. This means that the challenge of working 365 QSOs this year with just 5W (and no weak signal digital modes) has been met.

Now I extend the challenge to 365 QSOs this year with solar power (as well as 5W). This will be an estimate, as I did not count exactly when I started using solar this year. My preliminary estimate will be that I may have met that challenge, too, but I will work some QSO for the rest of the year. I expect to be fairly sure to meet the challenge this year.

Now what will be my personal challenge for next year? I see a few possibilities.

- maybe with an expansion of my solar power it may be possible to run the main part of the station on solar, with the exception of high power amplifiers. We shall see

- maybe I should make my first QSOs on the microwave bands (everything above 1GHz)

- I *should* finish some more kit building

- maybe I should build a more fully home brew TR/RX just for one band, and work some QSOs with it

- maybe run a challenge with even lower power, allowing for the use of weak signal digital modes

MPPT Charge Controller for Solar Power.

The battery had been charging a bit with a few sunny hours. I did not see a charge current much above 3A with the existing PWM charge controller.

A few days ago I changed the charge controller to a 20A MPPT controller. With decent sunshine the charge current then peaked at about 5A. Definitely an improvement. 

At the moment the system is still not connected to any radio, but the intention is to see if I can run the IC-705 on solar this week end.

Why the 705 and why this week end? The 705 is my go-to radio for running 5W,  it has a relatively low power consumption. I hope that there is sufficient juice from the solar system to run this week end. Further, this week end there is the CQWW CW contest, hopefully with plenty of opportunities to make some CW QSOs with 5W, and make a contribution to the 5W/365 QSOs this year. I still need another 60 to complete my challenge for this year.

If there is insufficient capacity on the battery I can use some other battery that has also been charged with solar power.

The main purpose is to have the vast majority of the 365 QSOs this year run on solar power. I estimate that I have probably done around 50 of them on mains power, so I stand at around 90% solar right now.

With the planned improvements I expect to run the 705 fully on solar power all year, and some of the other radios most of the year. 

The other test with the MPPT controller was to detect RFI/noise from the controller. As it is right now I have not noticed any noise, but the controller has not run full charge current yet. 

I do expect, however, that with a bit of filtering I can run this MPPT controller without creating a noticeable amount of RFI on the HF bands. More testes will be needed.

Solar Has Gone Into Winter Mode.

 The sun has been hidden (mostly) for quite a while. The battery I used is almost empty.

This is a good test of the system. The energy generated by the panels is simply too low for the load.

All the radio equipment is now running on mains power until the battery is (at least) 50% charged. That may take a while, as the days are short at 55 deg. North. More panels are definitely needed.

I will also have to make a test of RF noise generated from MPPT controllers. Those are definitely more noisy than the lower cost and lower efficiency PWM controllers. If I can reduce the noise to a sufficiently low level I will probably switch to MPPT. The expected increase of power is between 20 and 30%.

For now the battery receives a very low charge, simply because it has been cloudy for more than a week.

The existing panels used for charging are 2x 130W. 

I would expect to go solar again in mis February.

Yes, the station needs to be more energy efficient, and the battery/panel system needs to be improved. Still mush to do. Much of the indoor work should be done in the winter time: Monitor receiving system with lower energy consumption, and the bigger battery.

29.6 MHz FM Monitoring Now Included on Solar Power.

 Today I located an old CB transceiver for FM, modified for use on 29.310 - 29.600 MHz FM with 10kHz channel spacing.

I found this radio on a ham radio rally a while ago.

Current draw at receive is 200mA, and it will be running for several hours each day.

Why now? Yesterday I had a report of US stations and repeaters coming in on 10m FM, from someone on a local channel on 2m. As I want to join the fun on 10m I will have to improve my monitoring capability.

While on the subject of 10m monitoring, today I did get to hear Europe on 28.200. The OH2B beacon signal suddenly appeared.

As I want to be able to better detect 10m openings I will have to add two more frequencies to my monitor system:

- 28.074 MHz for FT8 reception

- 27.555 MHz. This frequency is used as an international calling frequency for CBers, and can be used as a slightly early warning for 10m propagation.

Initially I should probably locate my old HF3 receivers and some power connectors/cables. Even if they are not very sensitive, with a bit of preamplification they should serve as receivers on those two frequencies. With current draw of about 130mA the 10m monitor system is getting a bit power hungry. 

I may have to try building some very simple equipment for this. I have seen some good ideas. Building does take time, though.

Small Update on Reducing Energy Consumption of the Ham Station.

 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.

Back to Monitoring 10m a Bit More.

 In the energy crisis (which is likely to continue for a while, I have reduced the number of radios used for monitoring.

The daily operation runs a 2m/70cm transceiver (the IC-910 at the moment) scanning FM frequencies and making the occasional local QSO. The drawback is the rather high power consumption, about 2A at 12V, so about 25W, just for reception. At the moment the 910 is running on mains power, as the only radio running daily. I may change this into another (FM only) transceiver consuming less power, and still running 2m and 70cm. I do have another (FM) transceiver monitoring a local frequency on each of the  2m and 70cm bands. A mobile rig using about 500mA.

Most of the remaining daily activity runs on my small solar power system:

24/7 monitoring of the FT8 frequency on 50MHz, running an old ("handheld" brick) transceiver with 120mA current consumption.

Day long monitoring of diverse HF frequencies, mostly CW, and a bit of QSOs with 5W, RX current consumption about 300mA

Day long monitoring of 28.200, the frequency on 10m for the International Beacon Project, at the moment using my old IC703 with 600mA current consumption. As soon as I set the 703 to 28.200 the 4X6TU beacon was received with good signal strength. Yes, 10m is open.

There is a possibility of reducing the power consumption of the monitoring system, but this requires some building and other activities. At the moment I am working on getting the heating for the house, so I am ready for the winter, because, as they say: "Winter is coming!"

Building a big Battery for 12V in the Shack and the Lab.

After buying 28 LiFePO4 100Ah cells I started building batteries.

In the shack:

The intention is getting a battery build for powering the majority of my radio station, especially the monitor equipment, using mainly solar power for charging.

This has two aspects:

1.

Reducing the power needed for radios that should be on at all times, and the ones that are powered a lot of the times. This means that the older radios drawing 1-2A during stand-by are out of the question for 24/7 use.

Fortunately I do have some radios that can be used with low power consumption, more about this later.

The other radios with higher power consumption can then be switched on whenever I want to operate.

More about this in other posts.

2. 

Improving the power supply situation, so most of the monitoring can be run on solar power only.

This will be in stages. Right now I have 2 solar panels with a peak power of about 130W, feeding a charge controller. The batteries consists of 2x 12V - 100Ah LiFePO4 batteries, with a total of 200Ah available when the batteries are fully charged. This is just not quite enough for my use, so some of the cells will be used to create a 12V - 400Ah battery for the 12V supply in the radio shack. At the moment I have prepared 8 cells, running a "12V balancing" process right now. The test battery looks like this:

Yes, this needs to be protected against short circuits, but this is the preliminary setup.

What I need is finishing another 8 cells and make some more bus bars (connection between the batteries), getting the other 8 cells completely ready. Getting them balanced and fully charged, then connected together in a 12V configuration with 4 cells, then the second set of 4 cells connected as the second battery.

All this is done upstairs in my lab, and then I will have to use a cupboard for the 12V system with the 2x 12V batteries in parallel, plus heavy switches and fuses for the charging and power supply. 

I should then have a solid 12V power supply system in the shack, with a capacity of close to 200Ah.

As I expect to have some power amplifier using 24-28V, and some laptop power supply, plus a 24V soldering iron I expect to add a 24V battery in the shack for this purpose. This could be a 50Ah battery, as it will be in use infrequently, or a set of 8 cells with BMS (100Ah).

If I want to use the radios with high power, (>500W) output I expect to use the mains for powering those, as the batteries and a corresponding inverter is not practical for this purpose.

In the Lab (upstairs):

The two 12V batteries in use at the shack right now will then be free to use in the lan upstairs, creating a 12V - 200Ah. As I expect the lab to be less in use than the shack, I think this will work nicely.

In the lab I have a few pieces of test equipment running on 220-230VAC, and I suspect that using a (pure sine wave) inverter is quite capable of providing power for those, as they will be used infrequently.

I do want to have 24V available in the lab. This could be done in 2 ways:

Either creating a true 24V system for the lab, or adding a 12V battery system in series with the existing 12V system.

Winter is coming:

For both systems, but especially for the shack system I suspect that there will be a energy deficit in the deep of winter, especially Dec/Jan, and probably also Nov/Feb.

If that happens, and the battery voltage drops below a certain value, I intend to get some power into the system from the mains power system, preferably in "low tariff" periods.

Solar panels:

This expansion means that I will have to mount more solar panels outside.

I have some, alrerady, now I need to make some solid supports for them. There will be some experimentation with amall panel arrays first, then I will go larger.

I am afraid I have been bitten by the solar power bug ;)

Test of HB-1B for Digital Modes.

 For a few years I have had the HB-1B transceiver.

This is a small sized 5W CW transceiver capable of operating on 80-40-30-20m with CW. It does not transmit on 60m. 

The receiver covers 3.2 - 16MHz, and the RX mode can be set to USB/LSB on 40, 30 and 20m. For some obscure reason it only runs LSB on 60 and 80m. The variable CW filter can be set to receive in the full SSB bandwidth, so I thought this could be used for digital modes without problems.

The set runs with a headphone only AF output, so the AF attenuator I used with the higher end rigs (with speaker output) provided an insufficient signal to the computer sound input, no surprise. 

In any case, this makes the receiving setup simple for the frequencies the HB-1B is capable of. I was a bit worried to see if the frequency stability would be sufficient for WSPR monitoring.

I have run tests with 20m WSPR, and 20-30-40m FT8, and the system works very nicely with sufficient frequency stability. The fact that the transceiver draws only 80mA at receive, makes it a decent candidate for this kind of monitoring, until some receivers with lower power consumption have been made. 

Because my main interests are in the higher HF range, like 10m, and also in VHF/UHF, the initial receiver for the International Beacon frequency of 28200kHz could be reached with a simple down converter, using a 19200kHz crystal oscillator that I have, a diode balance mixer, and a 28MHz preamp should be sufficient for using the HB-1B as a 9MHz IF. Then a "real" 9MHz IF/detector/AF amplifier and filter can be built later. I suspect that the full receiver for 28200 could draw as little as 20-30mA, depending on the power consumption of the 19200 oscillator.

When that is done the HB-1B other types of monitoring can be done, both on 10m, e.g. with a 22MHz canned oscillator as converter LO, covering 10m - or other oscillators for covering the following bands:

30MHz: 40MHz monitoring

40MHz: 50MHz monitoring

60MHz 70MHz monitoring

The 10m monitor with a "base" frequency of 6.000MHz

the 40, 50 and 70MHz with a "base" frequency of 10.000MHz

Each converter should draw less than 30mA.

The 50MHz monitoring could initially be done with an older 3-band Tokyo Hy-Power hand held (like in holding a building brick ;) ) that runs 40-15-6m, since it draws about 120mA in receive mode. 

All this "power saving" happens because I want to run most of my station with solar power (maybe not possible in the deep of winter, then it will be assisted by mains power charging the batteries in low-tariff hours), and because some of it will run unattended 24/7, and other stuff just running when I am awake and at home.