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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/1/2021 4:59 PM, Robert Bruninga
wrote:<br>
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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CALdCfN+t8Lgj5_tLJE6Va1FB8vc3+p_4C8oNRdrTbHfou0K8ew@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="ltr">When preparing for winter APRS (and other) backup
power I found it
<div>
<div>possible to fit up to 175' of power cord on the Home
Depot power cord reel.
<div><br>
Just pull off the 20' of #14 power cord and rewind with
up to 175' of #18</div>
<div>Zip cord.. Rated at 10 Amps the reel can still carry
plenty of power the </div>
<div>distance if precautions are followed and it can still
fit under the car seat if </div>
<div>needed. <br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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</blockquote>
<p>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. <br>
</p>
<p>At swap meets, Field Day, etc, the safety-enforcers always freak
out when they think they are seeing bare wires on the ground!</p>
<p>___________________________________________</p>
<p>*** COOL NEW GADGET! ***<br>
</p>
<p>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.. <br>
</p>
<p>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. <br>
</p>
<p>The front panel has a nice LCD display that shows:</p>
<p> A bar-graph battery level "gas gauge"</p>
<p> The number of watts coming in from all charge sources</p>
<p> The number of watts going out to loads on all ports. <br>
</p>
<p>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!<br>
</p>
<p>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. <br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<hr width="100%" size="2">Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf (at) aol.com <br>
Skype: WA8LMF<br>
EchoLink: Node # 14400 [Think bottom of the 2-meter band]<br>
Home Page: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://wa8lmf.net">http://wa8lmf.net</a><br>
<br>
-- APRS over FLdigi Modes --<br>
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<br>
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<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://wa8lmf.ddns.net:14447/"><http://wa8lmf.ddns.net:14447/></a><br>
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