SHTF neighborhood tac comms

[The Wizard]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power
I used the word energy when the word power would have given better results, sorry about that

ETA second link http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 2111001341

[Weetabix]

A small solar panel project

Mine is smaller, but it charges a car batery fine. Next step is charging radios. An inverter will probably be the easy way.

[randy]

A small solar panel project

Mine is smaller, but it charges a car batery fine. Next step is charging radios. An inverter will probably be the easy way.

An inverter should only be needed if you are using a rapid charger or other A/C charging unit. Many amateur radio portables will allow you to run/charge batteries with a 12v DC input, which would be more efficient, avoiding the losses an inverter would cause. Of course, the rapid charging is nice if you don't have several hours to charge the battery.

You could do it as simply as staying with the car battery charging, and once it's close to topped off hook up your HT to battery in parallel.

YMMV depending on the unit involved.

[randy]

I have 1 important question: Do u expect power to be on, or off in your SHTF scenario?

A lot is going to depend on the actual scenario, and how complete/breakdown is. At some point, yeah, we're back to signal mirrors, drums and semaphore flags.

For short to intermediate I think I'm OK. I have a variety of sealed lead acid batteries that I keep charged up and can run a mobile VHF for a day or 2 and an HT for a week or more. Have a solar panel that will take a while but will do the job, and of course vehicles for charging as long as fuel is available.

I need to start looking at more efficient and higher capacity solar charging.

Every year at Field Day, one of our club members has access to commercial UPS battery pulls (replaced on a schedule, not due to failure) and occasional fork lift batteries. These will run 100W HF stations all weekend, would run low power VHF/UHF mobiles for weeks and recharge HT's for effectively months, even assuming no solar top off or access to a generator.

Depending on where you live look at some of the smaller wind turbines.

One ham built a small hydroelectric generator using a stream running through the back of his property.

For reception of commercial broadcast and NOAA WX radio, get one of the units with a built in hand cranked generator. For straight AM, build a crystal set - no power source needed.

[Weetabix]

A small solar panel project

Mine is smaller, but it charges a car batery fine. Next step is charging radios. An inverter will probably be the easy way.

An inverter should only be needed if you are using a rapid charger or other A/C charging unit. Many amateur radio portables will allow you to run/charge batteries with a 12v DC input, which would be more efficient, avoiding the losses an inverter would cause. Of course, the rapid charging is nice if you don't have several hours to charge the battery.

You could do it as simply as staying with the car battery charging, and once it's close to topped off hook up your HT to battery in parallel.

YMMV depending on the unit involved.

[Slaps head]. I already have that. Thanks for the reality check.

[Weetabix]

Got a 65.7% on an online sample test just by trying to logic things out. Perhaps I can do this.

You can find study guides on line, hard copy guides at ARRL, or used hard copy at a be books.com..

Do it.

[Termite]

Four 6vdc golf cart batteries and two 75watt panels should give you plenty of power to run all the neighborhood comms you should need.
Parallel the panels, and series/parallel the batteries for 12vdc. Get an inexpensive charge controller. MPPT controllers are more efficent/charge faster than on/off switching controllers, but generally not as rugged; you can get on/off controllers that are fully potted for not much money. Make sure to get a controller rated for at least 25% more amps than your panels normally produce.
And add fuses. 12vdc really can start fires.

Amazon and Ebay are both a good place to start looking.

For those of you who like to build stuff/tinker, a spare 3.5hp-5 hp horizontal shaft B&S/Honda/Kohler/etc engine and a car alternator can be turned into a real handy battery charger. There's drawings & plans online, exercise your Googlefu.

[Rumpshot]

An old lawn mower complete with deck work well with the B&S and Alternator.

Horror Fright often puts their solar panel set on sale for a decent price.

[Kommander]

Got the study book yesterday. I have to admit that I am having a hard time getting excited about the whole thing and I am much more interested in the end results than what is going on in the magic elf boxes. Perhaps it has to do with not being able to see how they actually work. Any studying continues apace.


I do not love the bright LCD display for its sharpness, nor the BaoFeng for its cheapness, nor the HAM Curmudgeon for his temper. I love only that which they communicate.

[Greg]

Well, have to start somewhere so....

I'd like to start with something simple and cheap that will provide immediate utility but still he useful if I ever move on to bigger-and-better.

To that end, I want a set of FRS/GMRS radios. They will he used immediately for walks in the woods, outlet malls, big box stores, for occasions where we need to caravan multiple vehicles, etc. Real life, not shtf yet.

Yes at the very least I plan on getting the GMRS license for the family. I understand the appeal of MURS, but even the cheapest handheld MURS radios I've seen are nearly $200 a pop and that's a lot for a 2W handheld.

So, can anyone get me started with recommendations for (dare I say it) blister pack FRS/GMRS radios? Pardon if that has been asked before, I don't recall seeing it and search sucks.