[Elecraft] LED bulbs

Wed May 13 01:11:30 EDT 2015

Awesome Dave.
I run two systems one a 12 and one a 24 volt. The 12 volt runs the lights
and now ham gear. The 24 volt runs the Air Conditioner. I also have wind
turbine connected. I use two morning star mppt controllers and outback
inverter/charger. I also have a small quiet generator converted to propane
to send power like the grid to the outback systems.
Will be going to a very Rare grid square this summer to operate. Bagdad
beach / US Border. So going to break out the kill-a-watt meter and make
sure I have enough to run it out there.
Thanks for the reply
Gerald KC6CNN
On May 12, 2015 11:49 PM, "Dave Olean" <k1whs at metrocast.net> wrote:

>  Hi Gerald
> That battery bank must weigh a lot!  Mine is probably 340 lbs. I'll bet a
> 900 amp bank is over 600 lbs.  Well, I wanted 12 volts so I could run all
> the hamster type 12 volt gear off the batteries. (K3, P3, etc)  My charge
> controller will do 12, 24 or 48 volts if I tell it to.  I also have 24
> volts available at the shack for relays and whatever else might show up on
> 24 VDC, but I just have two 12 volt systems that I bridge together. My
> eventual plan is to have a 48 volt battery buss and run some homebrew LDMOS
> or straight FET amplifiers directly off the 48 volts. My hamshack is quite
> extensive with all sorts of gear for all the VHF bands, and I am working on
> solid state amps for most of the bands. Right now I have 1200 watts on 50,
> 1000 watts on 222 MHz, 600 watts on 144, 300 watts on 432, and 175 watts on
> 1296. The bands above 1.2 GHz are all solid state too. My 2.3 GHz amp is a
> 500 watt output beast that runs on 24 VDC. I am scared to hook it up!
>     I have a few years under my belt on the battery bank. So far it is
> working great, but I am careful to not discharge it down too much. Deep
> discharges kill batteries. The worst it ever got was to 72% of full charge.
> I also re charge the battery bank quickly. I never leave it uncharged ever.
> I use a Bogart Engineering battery monitor to evaluate battery status.
> With the 12 vs 24 volts, are you referring to the lifetime of the
> batteries, or the amount of discharge power you can extract from the
> system?
>     I am saving my pennies to get a 48 volt solar buss running here. I
> have had such great results with the 12 volt system and want to expand it
> to run more bands in the future. Runnings amps directly off those batteries
> will be quite efficient too. The whole reason for the solar power is that
> my shack is quite remote from my house with no AC  power hookup there. I
> need to make my own juice.
>
> Dave K1WHS
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* Gerald Manthey <kc6cnn at gmail.com>
> *To:* Dave Olean <k1whs at metrocast.net>
> *Cc:* Marc Veeneman <mhvnmn at gmail.com> ; Wayne Burdick <n6kr at elecraft.com>
> ; Elecraft List <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, May 12, 2015 10:54 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [Elecraft] LED bulbs
>
> Dave
> I have a question for you.
> I too run off of solar when I am in my RV. I have a 900 amp hour battery
> bank. Using a 12v pure sine wave inverter. I took the battery bank and
> divided it to a 450 amp hour 24 volt system and it seems to last longer.
> Have you concidered this or even going to a 48 volt system?
> Just curious.
> Thanks
> Gerald.
> On May 12, 2015 1:44 PM, "Dave Olean" <k1whs at metrocast.net> wrote:
>
>> I am using my KPA500 while running on batteries. Sounds weird but true.
>> The KPA500 is quite efficient although it is always drawing some current
>> even when turned off. I can see that slight drain on my DC ammeters. In
>> receive, there is little current drain. Of course, when I start sending CW
>> I see the ammeter go up to about 70 amps. (Not a peak reading ammeter
>> either!). My battery bank is a pair of 275 AH solar AGM type 12 volt
>> batteries. The charging circuit is a couple of 220 watt solar panels. I use
>> a pure sine wave inverter that is pretty noiseless.  (Xantrex Pro Sine 1800
>> W) During the day when the Sun is out, the batteries charge up during the
>> receive cycle, so I don't deplete the batteries at all. At night I can go
>> for many hours and have never gotten close to even a 50% discharge. In
>> short, the K3/KPA500 combo is very efficient. I could not do that with my
>> big tube amps! The filaments and blowers would kill the batteries before I
>> even got the HV turned on!
>>
>> Dave K1WHS
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marc Veeneman" <mhvnmn at gmail.com>
>> To: "Wayne Burdick" <n6kr at elecraft.com>
>> Cc: "Elecraft List" <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 3:25 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] LED bulbs
>>
>>
>> Not everyone can turn a QRP LED discussion into a KPA500 pitch with power
>>> plants as the bridge.
>>> --
>>> Marc
>>>
>>> On May 12, 2015, at 10:33 AM, Wayne Burdick <n6kr at elecraft.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> LED bulbs are optical QRP, so not O.T. :)
>>>>
>>>>  If everyone swapped in LEDs over the next few years, we'd probably
>>>> eliminate the need for any new power plants.
>>>>
>>>> Even if we all started using KPA500s.
>>>>
>>>> 73,
>>>> Wayne
>>>> N6KR
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On May 12, 2015, at 6:18 AM, Marc Veeneman <mhvnmn at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> I don't think I've saved much money, though.  The reduced electrical
>>>>> demand won't justify the high cost of the modern day wonder -- LED lighting.
>>>>> --
>>>>> Marc W8SDG
>>>>>
>>>>> _
>>>>>
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