Everyone orders off the same menu. Anyone who has not been living under a rock since the pandemic knows full well that pretty much everything is getting crazy expensive. That would be bad enough except very few of us have increased our income accordingly. This is not a political statement…. Read more »
The best of times. Battery technology has made huge advances in a relatively short amount of time. When batteries started being commercially produced in the early 1900s, lead acid or “wet cell” batteries were the only option. “Dry cell” batteries were made too, but they were for small applications such… Read more »
Exponential market growth! Lithium battery technology has made exponential market penetration in the last decade or so. Once an exotic and expensive platform, today nearly every battery-powered device uses lithium. Along with increased market acceptance comes attention, both good and bad. Most of the bad news circulating about lithium batteries… Read more »
When you want to expand your battery capacity. Off grid ham radio has an addictive quality about it. You tell yourself, “I’ll get a modest battery and solar panel and just fool around a little bit. I’m not too serious about this,” thinking that’s as far as you’ll ever go…. Read more »
Graduation time. A lot of if not most off grid hams have only one battery in their system. Connecting a single battery is more or less self-explanatory. What should you do when you expand your system to include multiple batteries? Should they be in series? In parallel? Is one way… Read more »
It cannot be avoided… Batteries are arguably the weakest link in the off grid radio chain. Solar panels, controllers, connecting cables, and almost everything else can last years, even decades. But batteries are a consumable product and no matter how good yours are, it’s almost certain they will not last… Read more »
Mother Nature flips the switch. Where I live in the upper Midwest USA, we were unusually lucky to have an extended warm Fall season. In early November we were still seeing highs over 70F (21C). I was raking leaves wearing shorts and a t-shirt! But ahhh yes, everyone knew the… Read more »
After further review…. I’ve trash-talked “solar generators” before. Besides having a dumb marketing department name, solar generators are underpowered for what they cost. Furthermore, the claims made by some sellers of these devices are fantasy if not outright fraudulent. At least that’s how it used to be. Lately, after further… 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 »
This is a very exciting time of changes for off grid and alternative energy. The cost of established systems is coming way down and many new discoveries are in the pipeline. For sure, a lot of emerging off grid technology is highly theoretical and may never appear on the end… Read more »