[Elecraft] KX3 and solar panels

[Jesper Henriksen]

I've got a setup where I hook my KX3 up to a Sunload.de M60, which in
turn is hooked up to a 20W Powerfilm folding solar panel.

On a field day in April one of the CW guys in our club had a blast with
this setup. Despite the low sun and that I had not angled the solar
panel perfectly, the M60 indicated a higher charge at the end of the day
than at the beginning. I call that a success story :)

The Sunload M60 is a pretty cool device. It's a Li-ion battery hooked up
to a charge controller that takes solar (MPPT) as well as ~12V from a
car or wallwart. The output is taken pretty much directly from the
Li-ion battery, so there's no noise. Haven't noticed any noise when
using solar, but I haven't looked much for it either. The wallwart does
produce some noise, but nothing I can't live with, and there's no
problem in driving it from your noise-free 13.8V ham supply. Another
neat detail is two USB plugs for charging your phone etc, though because
of the many non-compatible charging schemes it doesn't necessarily work
with all phones (amazing how manufacturers can complicate a simple 5V DC
exchange).

-- 
Jesper Henriksen

On Mon, Nov 25, 2013 at 12:42:25PM -0700, Gene Ruff wrote:
> I am looking for  information on using folding solar panels with my KX3 . success stories or sad ones. Thanks G. R.