Tim, I have a commercial UHF repeater that has been operating 24/7 on a mountain ridge since January 2003. It uses two Siemens 75 watt solar panels in parallel, two Concorde 105 AH SLA batteries in parallel, a SunWize Steca charge controller, and a Motorola R1225 45 watt radio. A Celwave PD696-1-2 duplexer feeds a Decibel Products DB408 aluminum dipole antenna.
Perhaps the best advice I can offer is to properly apply the solar power components. The solar panel should be large enough supply at least eight times the standby current required by the repeater equipment, and the battery should be a sealed lead-acid type both for safety and longevity and of a capacity sufficient to run the repeater for at least two days with no input from the solar panel. Finally, use a commercial solar charge controller to manage your power flow. Your load should connect to the charge controller and not to the battery. Some charge controllers have current sensors in the negative lead, so you may need to ensure that there are no connections to ground except at the load circuit. Since the antenna cable shield is connected to ground, you cannot ground the negative poles of either the battery or the solar panel. 73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tim Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 6:47 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Solar Power I have a site located that I would like to install a 220 Ham Repeater but there is no electrical power. I don't know the first thing about solar power but would like to consider this project for my first solar powered repeater. I would appreciate any links, tips, suggestions, or information about solar power for repeater use. I have looked at a couple of web sites but I know there are hundreds of solar powered sites around the country and I figured that this group would have the experience to point me in the right direction for research or purchase of equipment. If you would like to send off group, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:kk4wh%40yahoo.com> will get to me. Thanks in advance for the help. Tim, KK4WH
