[aprssig] Backup Remote Power cord ops

[Earl Needham]

Annnnnnd......

They make a great heating coil if you keep it on the reel and run much
amperage through it.

Maybe more heat than is safe.

By 7 3
Earl
KD5XB


On Wed, Dec 1, 2021, 4:55 PM Stephen H Smith via aprssig <
aprssig at lists.tapr.org> wrote:

> On 12/1/2021 4:59 PM, Robert Bruninga wrote:
>
> When preparing for winter APRS (and other) backup power I found it
> possible to fit up to 175' of power cord on the  Home Depot power cord
> reel.
>
> Just pull off the 20' of #14 power cord  and rewind with up to 175' of #18
> Zip cord..  Rated at 10 Amps the reel can still carry plenty of power the
> distance if precautions are followed and it can still fit under the car
> seat if
> needed.
>
> I did this about a decade ago!   Used a generic orange cord reel from
> Harbor Freight that had 30 feet of 16-3 cord on it.  Took it apart, removed
> the cable, and replaced it with 200 feet of Monoprice premium "oxygen-free"
> (an affectation in the audiophile community) speaker cable.  This stuff is
> two-conductor 14-2 zip cord in a clear PVC jacket. One conductor is
> stranded natural copper color; the other is silver (tinned copper) (so you
> can tell the polarity for stereo speaker hook ups.  If you are really
> serious about polarizing 2-conductor AC cords, the two colors are a lot
> easier to see than the almost invisible ridges on one side of AC zip cord.
>
>
> At swap meets, Field Day, etc, the safety-enforcers always freak out when
> they think they are seeing bare wires on the ground!
>
> ___________________________________________
>
> *** COOL NEW GADGET! ***
>
> For power in the field, I just took the plunge and invested in a Jackery
> "portable power station".,   This is a 25-lb 10x10x12 inch box with a 1
> kilowatt-hour lithium battery inside. The battery is surrounded by TWO
> DC-DC converters and ONE DC-AC inverter:  One outputs 5 VDC to two USB-A
> jacks and two USB-C jacks.   One outputs to a 10 AMP 12 VDC car lighter
> jack,  The inverter outputs 110 VAC pure sinewave to  THREE 110 VAC
> three-prong AC outlets.  The AC inverter can output up to 1 KILOWATT!
> I've tried it - it really can power a 3/4-horse table saw or a small
> microwave oven, a coffee maker, or my 800-watt electric weed whacker..
>
> On the input end, it has charging jacks for a normal 12-VDC car power jack
> (a.k.a "cigarette lighte jacr"). It CAN ACCEPT 10 TO 30 volts input, so the
> power station can be charged on large trucks or military vehicles with 28
> VDC systems.  It can also be connected to  a provided 250-watt  100-250
> VAC-input power brick.    Finally, it has a built-in solar charge
> controller that can be connected to "bare" solar panels - no external
> charge controller needed.    The device comes with a Y-shaped cable with an
> mystery junction box in the center that allows you to connect two similar
> 12-18 volt solar panels in parallel to the single port.
>
> The front panel has a nice LCD display that shows:
>
>    A bar-graph battery level "gas gauge"
>
>    The number of watts coming in from all charge sources
>
>    The number of watts going out to loads on all ports.
>
> I have used this device several times now at ham events including swap
> meets, and a presentation on APRS that I gave to the Traverse City,
> Michigan ham club last week.  I call the Jackery my "cordless extension
> cord".  Sure beats chasing around unfamiliar venues looking for AC outlets
> and stringing vast lengths of extension cords!
>
> Now that the winter season has arrived, the swap meets around here
> (Michigan) are all indoors at auditoriums, union halls, high school gyms,
> etc. There is always a mad scramble at these events for sellers' spaces
> near the wall,  to get access to the scarce AC outlets.  Now, with the
> Jackery, I can take any table in the middle of the room, and  plunk the
> power station down under the table.    I then plug in everything  AC or DC
> into the one power supply:  Phone and tablet chargers, 12 VDC transceivers,
> AC supplies for 100-watt class HF transceivers, laptops, desktop PCs,
> computer monitors, my drone charger, and even my Acer 1080-HD video
> projector.   The Jackery has had no problems powering all this stuff for
> the typical 5 hours of the average swap meet.
>
>
> ------------------------------
> Stephen H. Smith    wa8lmf (at) aol.com
> Skype:        WA8LMF
> EchoLink:  Node #  14400  [Think bottom of the 2-meter band]
> Home Page:          http://wa8lmf.net
>
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>
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>
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>
>
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