Cold weather changes everything. It’s December, and for most of the USA we are heading into seriously cold weather. Cold has a lot of negative effects on off grid power and amateur radio gear. If you have not properly accounted for cold weather, then your equipment will let you down… Read more »
Revisiting a classic. It’s been three years since I presented an article about the DIY portable DC power pack. It’s still one of the most popular articles here on Off Grid Ham. Almost every radio amateur has some version of this gizmo. Over the winter I had the itch to… Read more »
News Digest is an occasional Off Grid Ham series on developments and news in off grid and alternative energy relevant to radio amateurs. I’ll sort through the geek stuff so you don’t have to! If you come across a news item that would be in interest to Off Grid Ham… Read more »
That day will come. Those who depend on large storage batteries for their off grid needs dread the day they need to be replaced. It’s expensive, time consuming, and potentially dangerous. Common deep cycle flooded storage batteries bought at retailers will last about 2-3 years if used daily and maintained… Read more »
Over on the Off Grid Ham affiliate Google Groups.io forum a reader asked a question about how to properly maintain flooded batteries, also referred to as wet cell batteries. We have addressed this topic before but as a result of recent interest it’s a good time for a flooded batteries refresher course…. Read more »
A mature technology. AC inverters are like other technology in that during the early years they were very expensive and didn’t work particularly well. Over time they were tweaked and improved and today inverters are better and less expensive than their ancestors. I suggest including an inverter in your off… Read more »
If you are an off grid ham, you probably have a gas powered generator. And if you are a conscientious off grid ham, you have at least a few day’s worth of fuel stored. Does gas have a shelf life? Are all types of fuel the same? Are you unknowingly… Read more »
In a recent article we did a deep dive into assembling a portable off grid radio station that was light and minimalist enough to be carried a fairly long distance by one person, but still had enough functionality to be an effective communications tool. That goal necessarily required using QRP… Read more »
This is the first in an occasional series on developments and news in off grid and alternative energy relevant to radio amateurs. I’ll sort through the geek stuff so you don’t have to! If you come across a news item that would be in interest to Off Grid Ham readers,… Read more »
A little less than a year ago I published an article about Google Project Sunroof, what it means to off grid hams, and general observations about the initiative and its implications. You can read the original article here. At the time I could find no way to remove oneself from… Read more »
It’s always some variation of “How big of a battery do I need to run my (fill in the blank) radio?” It comes up a lot, not just in my email but also on the various forums and blogs I visit. The question is too open ended and comes with… Read more »
So you’ve had your fun with small single solar panels and are ready for a larger multi-panel system that can handle beefier loads. Hopefully you’ve read previous Off Grid Ham articles and have your system all planned & spec’d out. There’s one important detail we haven’t covered on this blog… Read more »