[UK-CONTEST] Small generators for portable stations

[QUENTIN COLLIER]

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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