Eric, Would the sizes you used below for a commercial repeater be the same for a ham repeater?
Just wondering how the duty-cycle of your commercial repeater usage compares to a couple of hams ragchewing for hours about the high price of gas? Randy WB0VHB > 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 > >
