2 Days Off Grid with PowerFilm, Ham Radio and a Raspberry Pi

Good for you being a Lt. USN. I was a Seabee Diver with the Underwater Construction Teams. Was not a Ham at the time but if i was, it would have been a bigger blast, hamming from ALL the Pacific Islands.

 

Thanks to everyone for their commentary, and thanks - as always - to Julian.

I am still new to ham radio, a condition that gets reinforced by my limited schedule to operate. Sure, I have a full time job, but what I'm really about is Scouting. (My avatar picture is the BSA Radio Merit Badge.)

I am getting into portable operations more and more, and I do it with the scouts whenever I can. (Sometimes it's just by having the ID-5100A turned on while I'm driving the boys around.)

This summer at our troop's week-long camp, I'm bringing my FT-857D like I did last year, working SSB. The first weekend of camp is the same as ARRL Field Day. You can find the listing at Scout Camps On The Air (SCOTA). Then, I used my SuperAntenna MP1C, but unlike Julian's recommendations, I don't have as much success with it. Sure, it works, but I could be happier with the results. I'll still bring it with me, but I also want to try an end-fed long wire on a 40' Spiderbeam, too.

I have a big SLA battery that I use to power the Yaesu and I keep the battery charged throughout the week with a Renogy 100W Eclipse folding suitcase. All that's not hike-compatible, but it is completely off grid in the outdoors.

As I get more practice doing this, I want to pare down my setup with more portable options for our 10-mile backpacking trips through the Dolly Sods Wilderness, and all along the Appalachian Trail to Spy Rock. My learning curve is steep as I'm lucky if I get to spend much time operating if I'm keeping watch over my patrol -- much less do any experimenting. In a perfect world, I'd do this on my own without the troop on a free weekend. I'll let you know if I find a free weekend. ;-)

I have read, and re-reread every post in this thread trying to soak it all in. Please continue, and please keep making videos. I'm reading, watching, and learning.

Thank you.

Kevin Maxson / KD4MAX
Troop 55, Powhatan District, NCAC
Order of the Arrow - Amangamek-Wipit 470
Wood Badge N6-82-17-2 Buffalo

 

Just a tip.

You can make your own "extension cable" perfect for operating your off grid solar panel.

Easily constructed from around 25 feet of 12/2 low voltage landscaping light cable. This is sold from spools by the foot in the electrical section at any big box hardware store. I played with different lengths and 25' is perfect.

This is extremely tough and durable, direct bury wire that's UV and chemical resistant.

Just install 2 Anderson power pole connectors on both ends of your "extension cable" and install some shrink tubing to help keep water intrusion out.



Multi-purpose use.. Not only for connecting your solar panel!

Also handy for connecting your radio equipment sitting on the picnic table at the campsite to the car battery inside your vehicle that's parked nearby.

Great for emergencies and also permits use from any other off grid 12v power source that's conveniently available including any lawntractor, power sports equipment any disabled vehicles after a disaster, sump pump batteries, 12v home alarm systems and more.

To do this, I made up a few of my own "adapters" with Anderson power pole connectors installed on the ends. So when an appropriate adapter is attached to one end of the 25' extension cable, I can use it to tap into virtually any off grid 12 v power source too.

 

Groovy-as a NITROX certified open water diver I have the greatest respect for the monster skill sets of USN divers. I took $100/month from MARAD for 3 years of college at SUNY Maritime, with the deal that I pay it back with 8 years of ACDUTRA, 2 weeks per year. Just after my USCG 3rd Asst Engineer license expired in 1990, the DOD reactivated it during the first Gulf War in case MSC needed unlimited tonnage/horsepower officers. In '94 I offered the USN a 20 year stint if they'd let me in to the diving and salvage school. They said no thanks-they were busy letting officers go after the war. That's when I said adios, as the special duty officer stuff at shipyards was getting old. Plus I'd lose $5K every ACDUTRA because of the difference in pay between Lt. and private consulting. No regrets...the Merch and USN are part of my DNA forever.

 

Extension cables aren't generally my problem. I have Anderson PP connectors on my radio power cord already, and it's fairly long. The only headache I have with the solar panel and my SLA battery is that I have to open the battery box and put alligator clips from the charge controller directly on the battery. It won't pass volts through the on-board PP distribution block. I don't do it often, because I think the battery is 30Ah and I can run full power half the day and take the battery to the panel to charge it the other half of the day.

At some point, I can see replacing the included charge controller with the GenaSun controller that supports lithium batteries. I have a LiFePO4 battery that powers my 2m/70cm mobile go-box. But for that, I just use an AC adapter to recharge it. That battery is a 12Ah, so ostensibly, I could power both my 2m/70cm mobile along with my FT-857D comfortably so long as I could get solar power into it at the same time with a new controller. Having a 100w suitcase panel is nice, if not as portable. I don't have the money to get a comparable fold-up, portable panel.

As to doing digital modes like Julian does -- that looks pretty cool. I have tons of RPi 2 boards, and getting a 3 with a clock/battery hat isn't a big deal. I'd have to shell out the money for something like a ZLP interface and some kind of Android device though.

 

Julian's video work is always very good, and very relevant to a lot of people. Investing in a home station can be nice - provided someone doesn't come along in the neighbourhood and install something that ruins it all for you. This happens to most of us, sooner or later.

Much better to stay fleet-footed and ensure you can enjoy radio from wherever you want to go. I'm able to operate FT8 from one of those supposedly 'hopeless' 1/4 wave verticals at about 15-20W, or the same output I use back in the home station, in a field shack, also using a Raspberry Pi and 7" touchscreen. The UK is not noted for its sunshine, but a 100W panel keeps me going just fine, even on a less-than-blue sky winter's day.

Radio is what you want it to be. There are plenty of people who want to shout that you can't operate PV portable, but that's usually because they've never tried, or too attached to big, power hungry operation.

 

This forum thread motivated me to do some of my own field testing yesterday. So I had my CIGS panels out to do some battery charging / testing.



With around 80 watts of portable solar power connected to a Genasun MPPT controller, I managed to charge a fully depleted 5.5 AH LiFePO4 pack back to full capacity in approx. 3 hours on a partly-cloudy / mostly sunny day.

Thinking about this further, this is really not much different than charging the same battery pack using the recommended Bioenno AC charger at home. I can charge the same battery up in around 2.5 hours on AC power. I think I can live with those results in an off grid situation. lol

In my setup, I typically alternate my LiFePO4 battery packs in a manner so one is always charging, while the other battery pack is in use. So by the time the battery I am using runs out, the other one is already charged up and ready to go.

It seems I even have an additional surplus of available battery power doing things this way. So perhaps even with this setup, operating at even higher power levels of around 20 - 30 watts for a limited time isn't entirely out of the question.

I also think using two individual battery packs instead of using one larger one, also provides me with entirely uninterrupted solar charging. Perhaps this also provides an additional layer of redundancy should one of the battery packs ever fail or malfunction too.

So I dunno, maybe this added redundancy is something else to think about when operating your portable setup in an off the grid, while in the middle of nowhere scenario.

 

That's ridiculously obvious. So much so, that I should have thought about it myself.

In my VHF/UHF go-box, I have a 12Ah Bioenno LiFePO4 battery, with the AC charger stowed inside for handy use. I don't currently have a capability to charge lithium with my solar panel. The more I read about the Genasun controller - ie, posts from you - the more I think I should replace the stock Renogy controller that came with my suitcase. I note that Julian recently posted a video on the Genasun, too. I'll watch that next. Of course, I could just leave the stock Renogy controller on the suitcase, and get the Genasun for a 30W CIGS panel. Living in the Mid-Atlantic, that should provide me with enough power versus money spent.

If I build an HF go-box, I'll definitely think about getting two smaller lithium batteries to do as you recommend. The way my ammo can VHF box is set up, changing cables to swap batteries would be a nuisance. I should probably tweak the layout to give me better access to the battery in any case.

Still reading, still learning. Thanks.

 

Julian your a rock star on this subject.
Thank you.

 

I guess I should mention you can get one for less than $100 bucks here:

Genasun GV-10 LiFePO4 Controller

I used "Make An Offer" and stole one for $90 bucks with free shipping... I think you can too.

73.

 

Well, that solved that problem. I got one for $90, too.

Thanks!

 

@KC8VWM - got my controller yesterday. Pretty sure it’s compatible with my Renogy folding 100W panel. I guess I just need to take off the Adventurer PWM CC and wire in the Genasun. Perhaps some Anderson pigtails are in order, so I can still charge my SLA batteries swapping with the old controller.

 

Should work fine. Anderson power poles is the way to do everything up if you're connecting everything together while portable. It permits you connect things together in various configurations if you ever need to do things that way.

That's a good deal on a Genasun controller wasn't it...

 

We activated Buttermilk Falls State Park in New York last weekend (SPOA). Inside the Portable Zero backpack is the IC-7300 with Bioenno power 20AH LiFePo battery, PAR end fed 40-10, MFJ 939 (optional), etc. I normally use a light weight headset and the hand mic, but I brought the Jeep vs. hiking so I was able to enjoy the Heil headset. This outfit is going to get mounted to an external backpack frame, which will allow me to include shelter, chow and water. I may also mount VHF/UHF and HF verticals to the pack frame. Solar panels and charge controller from Bioenno are in the queue as well.

This same xcvr is my field day and primary base station rig.