[Elecraft] K3 battery power

[Wes Stewart]

I'm sure that I've mentioned this before, probably more than once.

I have an UPS/emergency power supply consisting of a East Penn (Deka) 95 AH AGM battery on continuous charge via a homemade "smart charger."

The charger was constructed using an Astron 35M supply, gutted of the regulator board, retaining the series pass transistors, transformer, rectifier and filter capacitor.  The control board is an A&A Engineering piece.

I originally built this to run my travel trailer, replacing a switching mode supply that made radio and TV reception (pre-digital) impossible.  I have since brought it into the shack.  Outgassing is not an issue with the AGM battery.

In addition I use an in-line boost regulator at all times.  Clearly this is not cheaper than an Astron supply since one is used, but it will run the K3 while on mains power without discharging the battery whatsoever. So I retain full capacity in the event of a power failure.  Backup to this is a Honda EU2000 outside the shack.

This is also my Field Day setup.

Clearly, this is not what you had in mind, but my position is that the battery should be babied for long life.  Others may consider them throwaway items, that can be routinely replaced.  This isn't a bad approach monetarily speaking, but a failure while calling P5 will make one wonder about this approach.

Wes  N7WS

--- On Thu, 7/15/10, Steve Ellington <n4lq at carolina.rr.com> wrote:

From: Steve Ellington <n4lq at carolina.rr.com>

Is anyone using full time battery power and trickle charging?
Considering the high price of power supplies and the security of a full time 
backup system, it would seem to make sense. The K3 draws so little current 
on receive that it would make sense to run it this way. I would be a bit 
concerned about gas from the battery however.
Currently I use an Astron 35m and I love it but I just bet that it consumes 
more power than the K3! Perhaps the battery/charger concept would be more 
efficient?
Steve
N4LQ
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Guernsey" <mooo1941 at yahoo.com>
To: <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2010 8:32 PM
Subject: [Elecraft] K3 on Order


>I have an Astron RS-35M as my power supply through a Rigrunner to my K3/10.
> Enough left to upgrade to K3/100.
>
> 73s de Dave KJ6CBS
>