In our recent P2P Winlink test over 1200bps AX.25, our ARES EC was the final destination of a lot of messages. One station connected to his, and idled there for 45 minutes, locking out everyone else. Bad news if there's an emergency, but hopefully during an emergency there will be more monitoring than in a casual all-day exercise.
I have a PWRgate/Rigrunner setup at home with an 100Ah battery. The IC-7100 turns itself off when transmitting at high power due to the voltage drop, even though all my cabling is #10. Based on the voltmeter in my K3, the drop is about 2V, too much for the 7100 although the K3 happily puts at 100W at that voltage. Applying Ohms law, that's about 1/10th of an Ohm resistance, equivalent to 100' of AWG 10 wire. The circuit has about 20', but it's there and back so 40', so I can do a bit better by shortening the cables. But the fuses, PWRgate, etc all take their toll.
Speaking of emergency power, based on my experience a fuel filter is a great addition to any generator that doesn't have one. Every time I went to start mine I used to have to clean the carburettor. In an extended emergency, fuel sources may be compromised worsening the situation. A muslin cloth would be handy too as a strainer. I must pick one up.
In our recent P2P Winlink test over 1200bps AX.25, our ARES EC was the final destination of a lot of messages. One station connected to his, and idled there for 45 minutes, locking out everyone else. Bad news if there's an emergency, but hopefully during an emergency there will be more monitoring than in a casual all-day exercise.
I have a PWRgate/Rigrunner setup at home with an 100Ah battery. The IC-7100 turns itself off when transmitting at high power due to the voltage drop, even though all my cabling is #10. Based on the voltmeter in my K3, the drop is about 2V, too much for the 7100 although the K3 happily puts at 100W at that voltage. Applying Ohms law, that's about 1/10th of an Ohm resistance, equivalent to 100' of AWG 10 wire. The circuit has about 20', but it's there and back so 40', so I can do a bit better by shortening the cables. But the fuses, PWRgate, etc all take their toll.
Speaking of emergency power, based on my experience a fuel filter is a great addition to any generator that doesn't have one. Every time I went to start mine I used to have to clean the carburettor. In an extended emergency, fuel sources may be compromised worsening the situation. A muslin cloth would be handy too as a strainer. I must pick one up.
73,
Chris