[Elecraft] OT: Battery and charger recommendations for 50 watt solar panel

[Jim Brown]

On 1/4/2020 2:24 PM, Wayne Burdick wrote:
> I could cobble something together from several different vendors, but I'd prefer to purchase system components that are already proven, reliable, and reasonable in cost. Any recommendations?

I and many of my friends are using LiFePO4 batteries from Bioenne Power 
with a Genasun charge regulator. Most high efficiency charge regulators 
are mucho noisy, but this one is not. The two k3s on my operating desk 
run on a 100Ah battery, which is float charged by a spare Thinkpad PSU. 
It's rated for 20V @ 4.5A, and the charge regulator, which is an MPPT 
type, down-converts it to the 14.5V or so that the battery wants to see.

This is enough to more than keep up with SO2R when the rigs are driving 
a KPA1500 and an 87A, or a pair of 87As. Under load, the K3 voltmeter 
stays above about 13.4V.

I own two 20Ah batteries for portable work; W6GJB owns a much smaller 
one (4Ah) that he uses to power a KX3 for WSPR antenna testing. Petr, 
AG6EE, owns a 50Ah battery that runs his KX3/KXPA100 for mountaintop VHF 
work, and a 48V that runs a 6M kW amp sold by M2. I think the 48V 
battery is 50 or 100 Ah. The weekend after Christmas, Petr was set up in 
this National Monument https://www.nps.gov/orpi/planyourvisit/maps.htm 
to work Meteor Scatter from this very rare grid along the US/Mexico 
border. No generators are permitted, hence the big battery for the power 
amp.

All of these batteries are Bioenne Power with LiFePO4 chemistry with 
built-in circuitry to equalize the cells. They are very good people to 
work with.

They also sell a much cheaper and simpler hysteresis charger for use 
with their batteries.

73, Jim K9YC