The best of times. Battery technology has made huge advances in a relatively short amount of time. When batteries started being commercially produced in the early 1900s, lead acid or “wet cell” batteries were the only option. “Dry cell” batteries were made too, but they were for small applications such... Read more »

The post Lithium Batteries: Where We Came From, Where We’re Going. appeared first on Off Grid Ham.

Exponential market growth! Lithium battery technology has made exponential market penetration in the last decade or so. Once an exotic and expensive platform, today nearly every battery-powered device uses lithium. Along with increased market acceptance comes attention, both good and bad. Most of the bad news circulating about lithium batteries... Read more »

The post Lithium Battery Fire Risks: Sorting It Out. appeared first on Off Grid Ham.

When you want to expand your battery capacity. Off grid ham radio has an addictive quality about it. You tell yourself, “I’ll get a modest battery and solar panel and just fool around a little bit. I’m not too serious about this,” thinking that’s as far as you’ll ever go.... Read more »

The post Battery Isolators, Separators, and Combiners. appeared first on Off Grid Ham.

Graduation time. A lot of if not most off grid hams have only one battery in their system. Connecting a single battery is more or less self-explanatory. What should you do when you expand your system to include multiple batteries? Should they be in series? In parallel? Is one way... Read more »

The post Series and Parallel Battery Connection Techniques. appeared first on Off Grid Ham.

It cannot be avoided… Batteries are arguably the weakest link in the off grid radio chain. Solar panels, controllers, connecting cables, and almost everything else can last years, even decades. But batteries are a consumable product and no matter how good yours are, it’s almost certain they will not last... Read more »

The post Batteries: Your Weakest Link. appeared first on Off Grid Ham.

Mother Nature flips the switch. Where I live in the upper Midwest USA, we were unusually lucky to have an extended warm Fall season. In early November we were still seeing highs over 70F (21C). I was raking leaves wearing shorts and a t-shirt! But ahhh yes, everyone knew the... Read more »

The post Lithium Batteries In The Cold: A Guide. appeared first on Off Grid Ham.