W2LJ QRP .... Do More With Less

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Going solar

Posted: 11 Oct 2016 12:55 PM PDT
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/feedb...m_medium=email

Well ...... kinda sorta.

I went to Harbor Freight yesterday during lunch to buy a 15" soft tool bag
that I had a coupon for. The purpose of the bag is to haul around the
disassembled pieces of my magnetic loop antenna.

While I was there, I started walking up and down the aisles, looking and
knowing I had a 20% "off" coupon in my pocket. You can get into a lot of
trouble this way, but I got myself into only minor trouble, I guess.

I purchased one of these:
It's an attache` case sized solar panel with 12V and 24V - (unregulated)
outputs. It's rated at 13 Watts. This will be head and shoulders above the
mini panels that I use now for charging 12V SLAs. Knowing the output is
unregulated, I then proceeded over to Banggood and picked up one of
these:So not only will I be able to charge deep cycle batteries in an
environmentally friendly manner (we all gotta do our part!); but I can even
run the KX3 (after mucho testing, of course!) off the panel for Field Day
as this little unit will regulate the panel's output to a steady 12V.
Both units ran me less than $75.
72 de Larry W2LJQRP - When you care to send the very least!