[Lowfer] WM "green"

[N8OOU]

Hi J.B. I'd be happy to, it is a simple setup, nothing fancy.

I have a 5 watt, weather proof solar panel, which is primarily intended 
to keep an automotive battery topped off.  It is/was connected to 12V 
4.5AH and 6V 4.5AH gell cells connected in series to give me 18V to run 
the beacon P.A.

My first problem was after running "green" for several days, I found the 
6V battery fully dead and in a reverse voltage condition. The source of 
this problem was the Chinese manufacture of the solar panel  put a nice 
blob of solder on the ends of the wires, then just crimped the alligator 
clips on the wire insulation using the blob to keep the wire from 
pulling out.

I had used that panel/battery combination last summer to run the 
electric fence charger on my garden. With the connections weathered now, 
there was no electrical connection to charge the batteries.

I am currently running charge / discharge test on the batteries to see 
if they are still good. They are a couple years old so I may be making a 
trip to the battery store.

I am hoping that 5W solar panel has enough "Cloudy Power" to keep the 
batteries ahead of the 100 mW P.A. I you want, you can read about 
"Cloudy Power" here ==> http://n8oou.meekfarm.us/SolarPowerProject.html

I need to make sure this setup works because my final beacon location 
will be about 1/4 mile from the house and AC power.  I hope that's the 
detail you were looking for.  Thanks

73   de   N8OOU - Mike Meek

On 01/13/2015 01:40 PM, John Bruce McCreath wrote:
>>   Factory connections on the solar panel were not properly soldered.  That kind of thing.
>>   I had to switch the PA power back to commercial while I sort out the "green" problems.
>
> Hi Mike....can you share with us details of your solar system?  My entire shack runs off an
> array of twelve panels on the garage roof.
>
> 73, J.B., VE3EAR
>
> LowFER Beacon "EAR"
> 188.830 kHz. QRSS30
> EN93dr
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