ml wrote:

well if one had to buy the jado it might be expensive, i can get one
much cheeper than list and somone here posted an incorrect list price
anyways , - then again if you add up the total cost of the
competition you'd at worst case be in the ball park

the goal was at first to power a hf/rig 100w tx for a few days on a
backup power source looking at batteries/fuelcells i realized this is to
much load so i figured my 2m righ on low pwr is a compramise @1week

at 100w tx, i started to put together on paper what i need, a pretty
big charger lots of very big heavy batteries , and they are VERY
expensive, if the batteries went 'low' and the power wasn't restored
say an extended blackout then the battery life goes down the tubes

now i live in an apt, so too many batteries even if free arent practical

code prevents me from using a generator in the building, so would the
coop board, and the noise, smell vibration and mostly a generator
running would attract 'undesiables' it would be kinda cheep and
storing say desil wouldn't be a big deal if say i had a pvt house
again thou getting extra fuel in a extended blackout would be an issue

i had a demo of this fuel cell i was really impressed, is the cost and
power output totally there no i guess not a few years from now prob
but the cost of the fuel cell unit alone is comparable to the battery
cost and i don't have to worry about the space, and other issues
associated w/batteries

i can get a small tank of hydrogen that would power the unit for longer
than i was planning for it's cheep and i can get it very easy even if
theyre was an extended blackout (details omitted) it's quite meets
code, very small, very light dosn't pollute or stink

seemed rather sexy the jado can also be powered from small cartridges
making the unit selfcontained and very portable, however this isn't a
requirement of mine but cool benni

the only con for me, seems to be a)not totally going to give me 100w
at full load b) i wish the unit was more than a puny 100w the larger
units i would have to pay full list for and are therefore outta reach


so solar /wind again might be nice in a pvt home but nothing i'd
rely on

it usually starts simple, i wanted somthing better than battery power

much appreciation
and mostly also because i like to tinker and learn seems like somthing
cool to play with and experiment

Ok, I have applied a simple power budget to what you stated your
original desire was, as opposed to your cut down 2m 5W system.

Using a rig I own, an FT-897, on HF.

Assume 90% receive at 1 amp.
Assume 10% transmit at 15 amps with 100 watts output, (measured as
opposed to the 22 amps claimed in the docs)

This gives 2.4 amps average consumption. (Check my math, the doctor did
a lot during my pre-op today)

1 week is 168 hours which gives us 403 ampere hours.

100AH deep cycle batteries are around 100 each (or less), So that's
about $400 for all the batteries you need for a week without sleep.

A modern top of the line charger, such as produced by Schumacher, is
less than $100, does automatic desulfation, will charge at 50 amps or
greater, and weighs about 6 pounds.

So now we are at under 500 dollars for an emergency power for any ham
that needs to run an HF rig for a whole week.

I just don't see why you want to use the fuel cell, it makes no sense.

tom
K0TAR