[Elecraft] Solar Power for KX3

[Fred Jensen]

This Fred will second the other Fred.  My engineering team designed a 
solar system for 4 repeater stations for a pipeline communications 
system in S. Africa.  It was hugely overdesigned, we had to to meet the 
contract specs.  In full sun, it made over 200A, way more than the wet 
glass batteries needed or could handle, and we had to have a controller 
that would sink all that power.  90 mins later, it was down to 110A, and 
60 min later it was down to 60A which just about shouldered the site load.

Be careful in your plans.  For a field operation, it's great, and it 
works well.  I was visiting my college roommate while they were building 
a straw bale house, and one morning, there was no generator noise. 
Turned out they had a solar trailer [I have a photo if anyone is 
interested], it was bright and sunny, they could move the trailer, and 
it seemed to power their skill saws and drills.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2013 Cal QSO Party 5-6 Oct 2013
- www.cqp.org

On 4/18/2013 8:39 PM, Fred Townsend wrote:
> Jim:
> Be careful what you ask for. Solar arrays are not rated for average.
> Probably because there is no such thing as an average sun. I'd like to say
> they are rated for peak power but that is somewhat illusionary too. How much
> power you actually get from an array depends on many things. You will want
> to get some sort of charge controller for sure. That is so you can match the
> charging requirements of your rig and battery to the array. DO NOT expect
> them to be the same without a controller.