KJ, I have operated on 100Ah AGM deep cycle (read 50Ah LiFePO4 for the same energy} using FT8 and Winlink for 4 continuous hours for two days in a row (8 total hours) before I had to recharge. Obviously, I did not have it on 50% duty cycle FT8 for all 8 hours, but I don't believe I have ever run 8 hrs of continuous FT8 in two days even if I were contesting. I have operated a Winlink station for about 3 hours straight on HF doing both Winlink and SSB and still had charge left on a 35 Ah AGM deep cycle. When these AGM's go I will be moving to LiFePO4. mainly for longevity and weight. I also bought a new auto switch (Automatically runs the radios off the highest voltage source) and MPPT controller so I can run the portable station off solar and the home installation of the mains until either the solar panels or the mains drop voltage. I have not yet acquired the panels for that system, as I am still using the AGM's at this time. I have generator backup at the house, so I never intend to use the solar at the house, unless gas runs out (I store the legally permissible 20 gallons at the house., so based on previous experience, I can go 6 days running essential loads on gennie without refuelling or tapping the other 25 - 50 gallons in the cars. Assuming I needed to bunker up and had full car tanks, we could go 20 days before I would need to consider switching to solar. That makes the solar mainly useful for deployment and portable ops, so I am planning on 200W of solar, and 50Ah LiFePO4 and 30 Ah LiFePO4 that will share duty between the house in backup, and portable/deployment ops.
My $0.02, Ron KE4DRF On Sat, Sep 4, 2021 at 12:25 PM KJ Anderson via BVARC <[email protected]> wrote: > I want to put a battery (see other thread) and a solar panel together to > be able to run my radio POTA/ARES, but while I can math my way into what I > think I need, I’d like to hear from folks doing it, empirically, to get > feedback on what’s actually worked/didn’t in the field. My math says a > 55AH deep cycle with a 220W solar kit should do really well during the day, > but I’ll still need to curb power at night, assuming a 25% duty cycle. If > I want a 50% duty cycle for FT-8, the numbers (read: costs) aren’t fun to > think about…. > > > > Who’s doing this, and what can you teach me? > > > > *-------------------------------------------------* > > *KJ Anderson* > > 253-380-2636 > > www.linkedin.com/in/scrumnerd > > > ________________________________________________ > Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club > > BVARC mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org > Publicly available archives are available here: > https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >
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