[aprssig] WB4APR: After-Dinner Speaker at TAPR-AMSAT Hamvention Banquet

[Stan Horzepa]

Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, will be the after-dinner speaker at the TAPR-AMSAT 
Hamvention Banquet on Friday evening, May 20, at Kohler Presidential 
Banquet Center in Kettering, OH just south of Dayton.

Bob's topic is "Power from Space and in Your Shack" (see the abstract 
below).

For more information and to make dinner reservations, visit 
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/hamvention/2011/Banquet.php ASAP because 
reservations must be made in advance and close end-of-day on Monday. May 16.

Hope to see you there!

WA1LOU

***

"Power from Space and in Your Shack"
By Bob Bruninga, WB4aPR

Last year Solar energy passed from a niche market for greenies to an 
economic opportunity that beats money in the bank.  The monetary return 
for every dollar on your roof can exceed 10% per year for life which far 
exceeds the security of any other investment in a bank or our fickle 
economy.  But this economic advantage is overlooked, misunderstood or 
wasted by many hams because of our warped and twisted prior love-affairs 
with batteries and generators on which we depend for field-day and 
emergency power.

To fully grasp today's economics of renewable energy we must learn to 
completely separate our needs for economical energy 99.9% of the time 
from our desires for emergency power for only 0.1% of the time.  There 
are economical solutions for both but they are separate and mutually 
exclusive.

Further, over the last decades there has been a hidden evolution of 
power supplies in every aspect of our daily lives.  Everything we do 
with energy from our ham shack to our big screen TV depends on this 
technology but it has also provided us with unbelievable versatility to 
access power from just about any source from 100 to 240 VAC or 100 to 
330 VDC or any voltage down to 12 volts.. Where to find power?  Have you 
looked on the roof of your house or under the hood of your car recently?

The better that hams understand these subtle evolutionary changes in 
energy, the better we are prepared not only for Field Day, for 
emergencies but also for the future of our families.