Amateur radio and DIY practitioner

[N4RAI]

Thanks for the add. As a ham radio operator living on the gulf coast, emergency communications is often on my mind and solar power is an obvious solution.
I'm looking forward to learning and hopefully contributing from time to time.

 

[robby]

Welcome to the Forum.
There are at least a dozen or so Hams on the Forum.
Most don't use their Call Sign because this is not a secure site like QRZ. If you look around you will find many threads about Solar and Radio Comms along with discussions on Solar Inverters and RFI fixes.

73
Rob

 

[Dagoth Ur Does Solar]

Welcome! This place is super helpful. I have learned an absolute ton from the people here.

I have zero experience with HAM radio, what kind of power do these things pull? I understand there's all sorts of hardware with various transmission ranges, but I have no idea what to expect in terms of power draw.

 

[chrisski]

As a guy who recently got into Ham for emergency use, for what I need, starlink is so much more practical.

The solar inverters and DC to DC converters do put out noise which can interfere, and I believe you need to buy it and try it to find out.

At worst you start shutting things off until you’re down to battery and that’s about all you can do.

I’m at the point where I want to buy an HF radio to take on my camping trips with the RV. I have a decent dipole antenna and installed an antenna connector in the RV and use an all frequency yaesu FT5 handheld. As an all frequency handheld, the HF reception is so so, but no matter what I turn on in the RV, won’t interfere with it.

Before I drop the cash on a new radio and power supply, I’m trying to figure what else I need like an antenna tuner.

I’m trying to decided on HF or starlink and I’ll probably get more emergency comm and daily use out of starlink.

 

[BarracudaBob]

Welcome to the forum and RFI in your MPPT or inverter..

Having two great interests that fight each other

 

[N4RAI]

Welcome! This place is super helpful. I have learned an absolute ton from the people here.

I have zero experience with HAM radio, what kind of power do these things pull? I understand there's all sorts of hardware with various transmission ranges, but I have no idea what to expect in terms of power draw.

There are a few factors but mostly the output power of the radio. Ballpark figures, you use 5A on receive and 20A on transmit. Generally speaking you will listen 80% of the time.

 

[N4RAI]

As a guy who recently got into Ham for emergency use, for what I need, starlink is so much more practical.

The solar inverters and DC to DC converters do put out noise which can interfere, and I believe you need to buy it and try it to find out.

At worst you start shutting things off until you’re down to battery and that’s about all you can do.

I’m at the point where I want to buy an HF radio to take on my camping trips with the RV. I have a decent dipole antenna and installed an antenna connector in the RV and use an all frequency yaesu FT5 handheld. As an all frequency handheld, the HF reception is so so, but no matter what I turn on in the RV, won’t interfere with it.

Before I drop the cash on a new radio and power supply, I’m trying to figure what else I need like an antenna tuner.

I’m trying to decided on HF or starlink and I’ll probably get more emergency comm and daily use out of starlink.

I agree that Starlink will change things, but ham radio will still have a place in emergency communications. Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and the California wildfires are a couple of recent examples.

 

[Farm Boy]

Welcome to the Forum.
There are at least a dozen or so Hams on the Forum.
Most don't use their Call Sign because this is not a secure site like QRZ. If you look around you will find many threads about Solar and Radio Comms along with discussions on Solar Inverters and RFI fixes.

73
Rob

If you tell me your call sigh, I will tell you mine.

 

[robby]

If you tell me your call sigh, I will tell you mine.

Best we don't

 

[N4RAI]

As best I can tell I can’t change that for 30 days…

 

[BarracudaBob]

Warning, Amateur Radio and Solar are both adicting

 

[ChrisG]

I agree that Starlink will change things, but ham radio will still have a place in emergency communications. Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and the California wildfires are a couple of recent examples.

No power or cellular communications for 6 weeks due to Helene. StarLink saved our communities ass. Gave us internet but more importantly gave us WiFi calling which allowed cell calls and geo coordinates for emergency assistance using Google and Apple Maps.

 

[ChrisG]

duplicate

 

[BarracudaBob]

duplicate

redundancy is good

 

[Brett V]

Amateur radio is a fun hobby but quickly becoming obsolete as a critical communications tool.
I’ve had my extra class license for 25 years but rarely get on the air anymore. Maybe when I retire from the communications industry I’ll get back in to it.

 

[BarracudaBob]

Amateur radio is a fun hobby but quickly becoming obsolete as a critical communications tool.
I’ve had my extra class license for 25 years but rarely get on the air anymore. Maybe when I retire from the communications industry I’ll get back in to it.

I am following i your footsteps. Still working in 2-way industry, after DXPeditions, and chasing 280+ countries now I just "rag chew" a little on 80m.

But after a few years I get active again. Just another tool in the box to pull out when you need it.

 

[robby]

I will make my Ham Radio complaint
FT8 and it's variants are killing Ham Radio.
326 and not interested in going on the air until the next ATNO that is CW or Voice.

 

[Farm Boy]

This solar stuff is hand in hand with ham radio use to be where guys would talk, compare and buy the most power full equipment. It was additive then and now with solar.

 

[wpns]

Honestly I can only do one hobby at a time, no idea how my ham radio gear works now that the new solar system is up.
N1JBJ
VP5WS

 

[BarracudaBob]

Honestly I can only do one hobby at a time, no idea how my ham radio gear works now that the new solar system is up.
N1JBJ
VP5WS

That is my story.

 

[Chispas]

Welcome to the forum and RFI in your MPPT or inverter

Morningstar PWM charge controllers have a simple switching charge mode to deal with this. As for the inverters, not sure about interference but the smaller SureSine ones are widely used in telecoms here in Spain, according to a Spanish amigo.

 

[BarracudaBob]

I've been a few places...

 

[BarracudaBob]

Redundancy is good. You always want to have spare parts.

 

[Skypower]

Not on the bands anymore, but I probably went overboard on it like many of my hobbies. I wasn’t too popular in my neighborhood and I was always blamed for interference even when I wasn’t home(someone at my door as I came home and they still couldn’t put it together).
During the Loma Prieta Earthquake I became quite popular because being in Los Gatos at the time and very close to the epicenter, I was one of the few who could communicate with the outside world. According to the media hype you would have thought that we were buried in rubble or fell into the ocean. I had people lined out to the road as I was establishing phone patches to the world and some news agencies to let their loved ones know that they were ok. How did I fair? The shake emptied my toilet bowls and cleared the shelves. Most people just got cracks in their stucco or lost chimneys.
Ham knowledge has been useful in later years in DIY solar. I guess the Ten Tec amplifier in the trunk of my car taught me about big cables and available power

 

[BobT]

I've been a few places...

So have I .