[UK-CONTEST] Small generators for portable stations - MORE ON CUT OUTS

[Dave Sharred]

The Lichfield ARS went to GW for a few NFD's in the early 1990's.

We thought that we were genny -savvy, having had experiences of failures of
hired ones before.

We hired one that had just been serviced (and looked clean); and took a back
up with us; we intended to give it a service first, but ran out of time; the
back up suffered with "hunting"- possibly dirt in the carburettor.

We ran on our Mountain fine; until about 4am, when the hired genny packed
in. We couldn’t work out why; It had plenty of fuel in it; but it just
wouldn't fire.

The back up was no use either; we even tried cleaning the carb up the
mountain, but couldn’t stop it misbehaving. We gave up on the contest (the
only time we probably might have won restricted !); did start up later again
running from a car battery on a 12V rig with no CW filters (!)

The genny worked fine back in Lichfield - we then twigged that it's mountain
location was not quite level !!  To be fair, we didn’t know there was a
cutoff switch fitted; the first time we came across one.

Lesson learnt - Always mount the genny on a true flat surface; especially
where a cut off switch is fitted.
Other lesson learnt - where you have a back up, make sure it is fully
functional before embarking on an expedition of any sort !

73

Dave
G3NKC

-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of QUENTIN COLLIER
Sent: 01 August 2010 07:25
To: uk-contest
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] Small generators for portable stations

A comment on the safety cut-out......at least it's failsafe. Many years ago
being young and foolish (as opposed to today's old and foolish) - I would
guess early 80s - we ran our then generator dry of oil and it seized up.That
taught us a lesson for sure. For at least a decade we had a small generator
designed for "occasional use" but it had a really tiny sump. This was fine
provided you stopped it three or four times during a 24 hour event to check
the oil - and we avoided the resultant downtime by use of a UPS. 


But our new machine runs 24 hours without complaint - and it has electric
start
- a major bonus for those of us of advancing years!

73,




Quin G3WRR 



----- Original Message ----
From: Ian Pritchard <g3wvg at btinternet.com>
To: uk-contest <uk-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, 31 July, 2010 15:17:23
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] Small generators for portable stations

Hello All.
For what it's worth our group has for many years used a small Honda EU 1.0. 
It has a continous rating of 900W and is highly reliable, It is quite light,
weighing around 13kg.  A  24hour FD contest uses around 15 ltrs of petrol. 
It can easily power a 100W radio a few computers, auto atu and lighting.   
The genny  is used infrequently but always starts pretty much on the first
attempt.
We havent detected any electrical noise.  The only point to watch is that if
the oil level drops slightly the safety cut-out will stop the engine.  One
just has to remember to check the oil before the contest starts.!

Hondas are quite expensive but on the other hand  it seems a false economy
to spend a load of money on radio equipment but then cut corners on the
power source!   Having said that,..I'm sure the copycat models are very good
too....its just that I have no direct experience of them.

73 Ian G3WVG
obo G0AAA Three As Contest Group.
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