[VHFcontesting] Dave's Station is OPEN again. Don't forget 222 Nite on Tuesday.

[David Olean]

The snow has been melting fast and I managed to get the truck all the 
way up the hill to my shack today. (Monday)  On Saturday, it was 
impossible. The truck got stuck in  the snow drifts even with 4WD.  So I 
celebrated when the road was clear, and took a K3 up to populate the 
10M/6M position and also drag my new and humongous 300 AH Lithium 
battery up there and plug it in to the existing solar panels. The panels 
are two Evergreen solar panels made before the company went "belly up". 
Of course this was just after getting a huge gift of money from the 
Federal government.  Anyway, they will produce about 450 watts when the 
Sun is out and they are busy charging the new battery up to full charge. 
My plan is to enlarge the Solar collection system and I have two new and 
bigger panels that each produce 455 watts for a total of around 900 
watts or double the capacity of the old panels.  Not sure how to install 
them, but I think they will be ground mounted with a frame that will 
allow up to four panels.  That gets awfully big for a 12 volt system, so 
I am still thinking this through, but my plan is to allow for permanent 
electrical power up there to allow remote operation from home year 
round.  I might need 2 X 300 AH batteries to accomplish this task.   All 
this work just because it is a good location!! Ham radio can be a lot 
like owning a boat or an airplane!!

My hope is to eventually run a solid state 500 watt output amplifier on 
144 and 222 off of battery power.  Everything is expensive, but one 
thing most people overlook is the cost of a charge controller that takes 
the Solar panel voltage and converts it to 12 VDC charging current. To 
get maximum benefit you need a MPPT controller. (Maximum Power Point 
Tracking) They are expensive, and I have to upgrade mine to handle the 
additional charging currents of the new panels. An MPPT controller is 
basically a programmable DC-DC converter that searches out the best 
voltage that will deliver the most power.  Mine currently will supply 45 
amps. I think I need to add another 60 Amp model at a minimum!

I hope to be on 222 MHz again for Tuesday night starting at about 2300 
UT.   The plan is to be on 222.100 on CW and SSB and then move off the 
calling frequency as activity shows up. Last week I think I made 25 
contacts and followed that up with some 222 MHz aurora QSOs on Thursday 
night.  On Thursday I quit when the AU died down after 9 PM. I did not 
want to run my big diesel generator in hopes of a possible recurrence.  
I think the aurora was back later after about 0230 UT and I missed it. 
Now that I have the Lithium battery installed, I can monitor the band 
without the genset running. That will be a big help.

The Hepburn Map does not look promising for Tuesday night. Even the Gulf 
is not so hot. Don't let that slow you down though. The activity levels 
all winter have been great and many contacts have been made out over 300 
mile paths by lots of folks with dead band and wintertime condx. Please 
make an attempt to get on and be sure to log in to the ON4KST Chat 
page     (144/432 Region 2) if you might need to set up a sked and have 
someone look for you. Activity usually lasts between 23:00 and about 
01:00 or a bit later as conditions and activity warrants.

73

Dave K1WHS