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2024.06.22 solar and power alias:




I got out a small (8AH) battery to get the talk-in radio up as soon as the staging canopy was raised. That,
along with my 100AH grab-and-go battery were the only lithium we had today. With all the stations being set
up, we had around half a dozen large deep cycle lead acid batteries as well.

There weren't any convenient buildings to lean the solar frames up against for evening/morning sun. The best
option available was the horse fence just off to the East, so we assembled the solar frames and set them out
flat by the fence to take advantage of the high-noon sun. As it got later in the day we could just lean the
frames against the fence to get a better angle. In the morning we might be able to just flip them around to
the other side of the fence to catch the rising sun to the East.

Dave (K0DV) reported a nuisance "ticking" disabling the AGC on his CW radio as soon as the event started,
and it turned out to be the electric fence discharging. That was the same fence I was planning on leaning
the solar frames against, so it's a good thing Dick (W0HHF) got that shut off. I didn't realize it was electric
since the lines on the fence looked like ordinary rope. Apparently they have conductive threads in them.
I've got no idea how I never got zapped while working around that fence.

It was my intention to hook the solar panels up to both the lithium and lead acid controllers at the same time,
but their MPPT functions were fighting each other and dragging panel voltage way down, so I ended up swapping
the panels between controllers until I finally got a second transmission line to the panels set up so each
controller could work off its own two frames.

I've had a lighting tote prepared for a few seasons now, and haven't had use for it until now. 12v desk lamps
were distributed to the stations that were still up as evening approached. I placed one of my "camper lights'
in the staging canopy, where the magnets on the back stuck well to one of the canopy's overhead supports, which
did an outstanding job of keeping the staging area lit overnight. Half-brightness was more than enough.

The batteries were discharged quite a bit by morning, and I started recharging things properly after getting the
panels split between the controllers. I ended up making use of almost all my heavy gauge copper wire today,
though I may need to make up a few shorter jumpers. Having to send power out in five different directions
pretty much emptied out my powerpole copper jumper wire box, and I used every one of my powerpole blocks.

I had to use a second solar frame combiner since using two controllers on one panel drop was causing issues.
I finally read the meters after unpacking: the spare combiner registered 361 WH, but the main combiner showed
an incredible 2,513 WH. That's a total of 2,874 watt-hours of solar power collected! I was hoping to get 1 KWH
at some point during Field Day, and this absolutely shatters my previous results. I wonder if the two controllers
getting in a fight was causing the numbers to be inflated somehow?

2024.06.22 12.06.26	2024.06.22 14.07.34	2024.06.22 14.07.42	2024.06.22 14.07.52	2024.06.22 14.08.00	2024.06.22 14.08.02
2024.06.22 15.36.18	2024.06.23 05.35.30	2024.06.23 05.35.34	2024.06.23 05.35.52	2024.06.23 09.37.24	2024.06.23 09.37.26
2024.06.23 09.38.22	2024.06.24 14.05.24	2024.06.24 14.06.52

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