[VHFcontesting] Inverters for rovers

[Dan Evans]

Hi Steve,

My setup is pretty simple.  The only thing I need the inverter for is my 
rotator, and charging my laptop battery.  My inverter makes a bit of 
noise on 6, but it's not terrible.  The laptop power supply is much worse...

Anyway, my work around is this:  I only charge the laptop when in motion 
[I don't operate while driving].  And the inverter is only powered up 
when turning the antennas.  I added a simple power switch to the 
inverter.  When I need to turn the antennas I flip the switch to power 
the inverter, turn the knob on the rotor control, and when the antennas 
stop I flip the switch back to off.  Simple, yet effective.

My inverter is an OLD radio shack 150 watt model.  This powers my AR40 
rotator with no problem.

My laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1300 which is very quiet when running from 
the internal battery.  But the charger is a bit noisy. 

Yes, I would love to have a nice generator.  But, I often operate from 
parks and other settings where excessive noise would be a problem.  I 
hear the Honda's are very quiet, but as someone else pointed out they 
are also very expensive.

73
Dan
-- 
K9ZF /R no budget Rover ***QRP-l #1269 
Check out the Rover Resource Page at: <http://www.qsl.net/n9rla> 
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k4gun at comcast.net wrote:
> I'm now in the market for an inverter for my rover station.  I need to power a laptop and the rotator for the antennas.  The inverter will be mounted next to the aux battery, inside a steel tool box in the bed of the truck.  It is my hope that the steel box will make for a decent Faraday cage.  
>
> My question is what kind of inverter do I need?  Can I get by with one of the cheap 300 watt models?  Do I need a "pure sine wave" model or would one of the modified wave models work?  I'd appreciate any suggestions here.
>
> Steve
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