[Elecraft] KX3 and Solar Panel

[k3ndm at comcast.net]

Lee, 
I think I'd use a small, ~8Ah. The solar panel will charge the battery, and the battery will keep the voltage closer to what you need. The best part is that you'll be able to operate after dark. 

73, 
Barry 
K3NDM 

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lee Stephens" <b2riesel at cincinnaticomm.com> 
To: Elecraft at mailman.qth.net 
Sent: Monday, May 27, 2013 6:26:37 PM 
Subject: [Elecraft] KX3 and Solar Panel 

Ok....so while at Dayton I purchased a 20W foldable solar panel with 
an Anderson Power Pole connector. Today was the first day I got to 
test it out at the park and as advertised it needed absolutely no time 
to start sending electrons to the radio....no warm up time needed. 
The operating voltage is advertised at 15.4 volts. When I powered on 
the KX3 it was on 10 seconds or so and gave me a warning that the 
input was >16 volts and the KX3 then shut down to protect itself. 
Ok...so it has 4 rows of panels....I folded one under and bam....it 
gave me a >16 vots of input and shut down again....so I covered up 
another row and it wouldn't come on....I covered up one of the squares 
and had a nice 13 volts input and it operated fine. Sending at 10 
watts and the reports on the other end on 17 meters were, "You sound 
like you always do"...which locally means good...but still lost in the 
dog piles of a DX. 

So...this thing is putting out more power than it is supposed 
to...which is a good surprise...and watching the KX3 screen the 
voltage seemed stable throughout SSB at 10 watts...I'd like to test 
that out on JT65 but I left the laptop at home and I didn't have any 
memories set for a long CQ on RTTY and didn't have the CW key either 
for input. 

So, anyone have a suggestion on an inline voltage regulator...say just 
Anderson Power Poles on both ends and a potentiometer to let me dial 
down to the desired input voltage? It would be nice to have a digital 
screen but not necessary since I should be able to read the voltages 
on the KX3 screen. The lighter the weight the better. The whole 
point of the light weight fold-able solar panel was for back packing 
to a summit and staying there for a while and leaving the batteries 
behind. 

Thanks for any help and suggestions 

Lee Stephens 
KK4JSJ 
KX3 #3462 



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