Field Day Solar

[Bruce Walker]

   Date: Tue, 27 Apr 93 15:16:48 MDT
   From: georgen at stortek.com (George Noyes x5698)
   Resent-Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1993 14:24:01 -0700 (PDT)

   Bruce,
      I'm not quite sure what part of the ARRL FD rules you are quoting
   (they aren't in front of me either...), but what I remember is that the
   charging restriction applies to the "battery only operation".  That is, 
   if you are charging the batteries while you operate, it kinda defeats the
   use of batteries, as you are actually running a "generator with batter
   backup".   Running batteries by themselves is the "xA Battery category", 
   which is the mode we've run at the K0NA group for FD.

Actually, now I do have the rules in front of me.  The battery category
isn't just for batteries: the "battery category" description says:
"...power source is other than commercial mains or motor-driven generator
(eg, batteries, solar cells, water-driven generators)."

However, the scoring section says "Batteries may be charged while in use
for Class C entries only."

So, to be in the "battery category" it's OK to operate off batteries alone,
off solar cells alone, but not solar cells hooked up to batteries.  That's
the part I thought was a silly restriction; maybe that's old news to
everyone, but I just noticed it on close reading of the rules.

--bruce WT1M