Power Queen Bluetooth Smart Edition LiFePO4 battery and charge controller test.

OH8STN Portable Ham Radio on Solar Power GIVEAWAY 2024.

The off-grid ham shack is fully energy self-sufficient, utilizing solar, wind, and other power sources, with a focus on low current devices for sustainable communication.

March 2024 Power Queen promotions offer discounts for large LiFePO4 batteries in the US and Europe, plus a 5% discount with code...

Integrating the Ruuvi Gateway and sensors to remotely monitor indoor/outdoor temperatures, ensuring safe temperatures for lithium battery charging. Off-Grid Ham Shack

To protect lithium batteries from cold while charging, a video/blog showcases using a Chinese diesel heater in an off-grid ham shack. It's vital to keep batteries above freezing, a lesson learned from electric cars in winter. The video details the installation and operation of a 3kw Vevor diesel heater, which also powers up using the ham shack's LiFePO4 batteries, maintaining ideal temperatures for both batteries and equipment.

This video shows charging Power Queen LiFePO4 batteries with a vertical wind generator and discusses off-grid ham shack power storage solutions, including during non-solar conditions.

This tutorial demonstrates how to connect two 12-volt batteries in parallel using Power Queen 12.8V, 100Ah, 1280Wh lithium iron phosphate batteries. The provided YouTube link offers a detailed guide. For related content, explore building a solar-powered Off-Grid Ham Radio Station and information on radio-friendly MPPT charge controllers and off-grid communications.

The Off-Grid Ham Shack series discusses creating a self-sufficient ham radio station or 'Ham Shack' capable of operating on solar power during any grid down scenario, emphasizing the importance of an energy strategy for off-grid communications. This system includes solar panels, a charge controller, battery, and power distribution system. Key elements are the use of photovoltaic (PV) panels to harness solar energy, a solar charge controller to regulate energy flow and prevent battery overcharging or damage, and a battery to store energy for later. As well, power distribution ensures the allocation of power to multiple devices simultaneously. A grid-down energy strategy is crucial to any communication-related emergency, be it CB, FRS, GMRS, MURS or PMR radio, UHF CB, DMR, DStar, Meshtastic or LoRa communications.

The blog post highlights the benefits of Power Queen LiFePO4 batteries for off-grid projects over traditional lead-acid batteries, focusing on the better performance and cost-effectiveness in the long run. Additionally, it provides subscribers with information and discounts on Power Queen's Christmas offers, and illustrates how LiFePO4 batteries function in an off-grid system. It also includes descriptions and respective links of the batteries suited for specific needs in the US, Europe, and Canada.

Over time, my POTA activation kit has grown smaller, due in no small part to a reduction in battery size.  I’ve transitioned from a 60AH, to 30AH, and finally a 15AH Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery.  Understanding the power requirements of my activation radio after 50+ outings has allowed me to activate with confidence that I won’t run out of power.

With an understanding that Rhode Island is fairly rare, my activations almost always generate a pile-up, and maintaining a rate of 1 contact per minute (60 an hour) is easy to do.  At this point I plan on the following:

• CW Activation 5.5 AH per hour of operation
• SSB Activations 5.1 AH  per hour of operation

Yep, CW takes more power on average!

Since LiFePO4 batteries allow you to safely consume in excess of 90% of their rated capacity before the battery voltage tails off significantly, that pretty much says I can have about 2.5 hours of heavy operating time using a 15 AH battery.  In my world, that corresponds to 2 parks between charges.  Using that rule of thumb, I’ve never run out of power in the field, and I’ve done as many as 4 shorter 30 minute activations in a single day.

I do carry a smaller 9 AH battery as a “backup”, but I’ve only used it once in 50+ activations (and that was because my primary battery failed).

The author discusses choosing a solar charge controller suitable for radio communication. He focuses on three criteria: portability, radio frequency quietness, and Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) functionality. Recommending Genasun due to its compatibility with these requirements, he mentions his dissatisfaction with another brand, Victron, that caused excessive radio frequency noise. For optimal results, he suggests keeping devices DC powered and using no inverters. He provides specific instructions about matching controllers to battery and solar panel specs, and suggests parallel configuration for Genasun controllers.

The post warns against the use of QRO radio systems for off-grid or grid-down situations due to their high energy consumption. Instead, it advocates QRP radios, suggesting they offer greater efficiency and ease of use with renewable energy sources such as solar. The post also dismisses the idea of lowering the transmission power of QRO radios as a solution, arguing that it does not address issues with energy inefficiency and that such advice is misguided.

Power Queen, a supplier of LiFePO4 battery packs, is having a Black Friday sale from November 14th to 24th, offering discounts on their North American and European websites. The author, who has had a positive personal experience with the product, endorses the batteries for off-grid use cases such as ham radio stations. The promotions also include giveaways on social media (Instagram and Facebook).

Hello Operators.The high cost of lightweight, amorphous silicon solar panels can be tough on budgets. After some research, I’ve found an American made solar briefcase [...]

Ham Radio LiFePO4 battery powers 4500psi air compressor off-grid!

After reporting the failure of my Miady 16 AH battery (lightly used less than 3 years old), I dug out my “backup” battery: a 9.6 AH K2 Energy battery, purchased in mid 2011.  That battery is 12 years old.  It had not been recharged since December of 2021 (2.5 years ago).

I used my battery analyzer to do a simple constant current discharge and found the battery had a capacity of 8.7 AH, even after self-discharging for 2.5 years.

So there is clearly a difference between a quality LiFePO4 and a cheap one.

After “fully” charging the battery, I put it into service during a POTA activation.  Imagine my surprise when 10 minutes into the activation my radio shut down.  I suspected a battery failure, but didn’t have a backup with me.

When I returned home, I discovered the battery was producing 0 volts, exactly as if the BMS had shut the battery down.  My reasoned guess is that the battery cells were not balanced, resulting in a protective shutdown.  So I “fully” charged the battery again, allowing it to stay on charge for about 4 hours.

I set up a test with a 6 Amp draw to check on the battery capacity this afternoon.  Just like during the activation, the battery was fine until about 12 minutes into the test, when it simply shut off after supplying about 1.2 AH to the load.

My suspicion is still that the battery is badly out of balance, and many hours of “trickle” charge are going to be required to restore operation.  But it is entirely possible that one of the cells has failed.

Note, this battery sat unused in my house (so room temperature) for about 5 months after being fully charged.  It was not abused in any way, and had less than 100 cycles on it, never drawing more than 50% capacity.  The battery itself was produced in late 2021 so it is about 2.5 years old.

 

 

Back in 2020, I purchased an inexpensive 16 AH LiFePO4 battery from Amazon, made by Miady.  Initial testing indicated that it was optimistically specified, as it tested to be 15.24 AH, but that wasn’t bad given it was about a third the usual price.  I wound up using that battery as my primary power source for many POTA activations over the next two years.

The last time I charged it was on December 20, 2022.  Giving it a full charge this morning, I found that 0.357 AH was required.  So the battery had self-discharged 0.357/15.24 or 2.3% over a period of 158 days.

Just goes to show how low the self-discharge of a LiFePO4 battery is – about 5% per year!