[K6BW] Emergency Power at Hamilton & QSO

[Bill Smith]

The K6BW repeater and the HWA Packet Node are now hardened with battery power, and all the red-painted plugs in the building have UPS power.  Thanks to Wayne, WA6MET, our long lost member who has moved to Benicia, we obtained a 800VA power supply that generates 110VAC from two 12V rechargeable batteries.  The original batteries, well decomposed, are now safely at the recycling center, and two 600CCA 12V deep cycle monsters, supplied by Jerry, WA6BXV courtesy of the Independent Journal are now hooked up and floating on the supply.

Who knows how long the station will run under battery power?  The batteries are not new and have had a rough life in the generator room over the last year or so, but they both happily took a charge and are now topping off due to the charger built into the UPS.  The repeater consumes about 140 VA (watts) standby and twice that during transmit.  The packet node takes much less.  Throwing around rough numbers, if the batteries were fully up to rating, we might see 3-1/2 or more days of operation.  That should be plenty of time to locate a generator (or fire our rather clunky one up if we need to).  Only time will tell what we can expect, we'll have to test the configuration once the batteries are fully charged.

In between searching for dropped washers and screws, and a trip under one of the operating tables to fire up the Heathkit CW keyer, a short K6BW QSO with Bill, KF6RMK was held Wednesday evening.  Tim, KG6SPV and Rem, K6BBQ have expressed interest in CW practice.  Tests this afternoon verified 40 meters provides good propagation for local contacts.  Tracy, we need you!  :-)  If all goes according to plan we will be meeting on-air almost nightly about 7:00PM for CW practice with short, slow-speed QSOs.  Can't make it?  Leave a note when you might have time.  

We are starting from scratch, expected frustration and stumbles won't matter.  Keep an eye on the reflector, exact time and frequencies are posted here.  Also keep a background ear on the K6BW repeater.  Don't hesitate to post a message if you are at the ready and can't find any local activity.  Send the message to k6bw at mailman.qth.net.

73 de Bill, AB6MT
billsmith at ispwest.com