Sustainable Energy Strategy | Off-Grid Ham Radio Station

A sustainable energy strategy is essential to any ham radio station operating off-grid or during a grid down. Let's take a look at my station.
Let's go through how this stations solar power, battery backups, and other renewable sources to keep communications up and running in any situation.
It has been a long road, but the off-grid solar-powered ham radio station is now 100% energy-self-reliant. This means the power supply for my ham radio station will remain unaffected by any pause or failure of the electric power grid. It has taken some time to develop an effective grid-down energy strategy. Today, the station acting as a TOC (Tactical Operations Center, can stay in the fight during a prolonged grid-down disaster.
73
Julian #oh8stn #hamradio #powerqueen
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#offgrid #griddown #lithiumbattery #solarpower #solarpanel
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01:23 Grid-Down Energy Strategy
02:30 Station power configuration
06:25 Comms Gear
14:39 Safety features
15:45 Final thoughts Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.

[@OH8STN]

Like this video? There is more from the off-grid ham shack series: Off-Grid Ham Radio Shack: kzbin.info/aero/PLKMrdrsNkFA4d4ujkWAkw7BvKhbZXW8wQ 73 Julian oh8stn

[@jcw945]

Great videos. The only suggestion I have, is based on an experience. If the ham shack will have wires with exposed positive and negative posts, I either tape them over or print covers, particularly if the space is a work area for antennas and tools because you can accidentally short out your system while repairing something or cleaning an antenna. Don’t ask me how I know. Keep up the great content.

[@OH8STN]

Outstanding advice, Thank you! I'll get to work on this, this week! 🙏 73 Julian oh8stn

[@Ron_pd3ron]

Hello Julian, you have made a great contribution to setting up and demonstrating how to provide the shack with emergency power in the event of an emergency. a very nice and educational project Its was fun to see your project , thanks👍🏻👍🏻

[@baconwhiskey821]

Enjoyed seeing the different energy storage mediums and how you have linked them for the overall goal.

[@1953Greyfox]

I have watched several of your videos and have always enjoyed and gotten a great deal from them. Please keep posting.

[@Doug557]

Thanks for all you do for off grid education.

[@OH8STN]

Thank you. Always more to do :) 73 Julian oh8stn

[@dougdaniels]

Glad to hear you mention Meshtastic. I'm just starting to self-learn it and would love an in depth video from you on it. I can't find anyone around me using it. It seems to be much more active in Europe than the US.

[@Tater26013]

It's not a great alternative because it requires so much infrastructure to operate.

[@OH8STN]

Will do! I'll focus on the practical side of meshtastic deployment. We already have some great ideas in mind.

[@OH8STN]

That's absolutely true. Moreover, the texting tools are quite poor in comparison to the tools we use for ham radio. Still, meshtastic has some interesting uses. It just need skilled resources t setup and manage the network.

[@MountainMan7.62x39]

I really appreciate your videos. The content is always spot on and fun to watch.

[@ronpetroski7203]

being an grider my self. its more fun. We have had power outages. i never noticed hahaha. i run two 12 ah lifpo batteries. for a total of 24 ah. I am still dabbling with ham and gmrs radios. found your video on qrz.

[@douglasvamateurradioandmore]

All my shack mobile radios are running on solar with a 100 Ah battery. I also charge an anytone dmr ht and my yaesu ft4x on solar. The evolve is intriguing to me because of the 12 volt operation.

[@polyinstrumentalist]

Thank you so much. I’m just getting started with Ham Radio. My biggest question was how to maintain/generate power. I now have two solar powered generators. I could understand your explanations, although I’m not an electrician. You make complicated routing understandable.

[@amham48]

Very informative description of the shack power and your reasoning. That Evolve laptop is terrific. I purchased for the same use and only $79US here in NJ.

[@AD6DMDennis]

Quite a comprehensive shack!

[@OH8STN]

Thanks. Still lots of work to do, but heading in the right direction.

[@tabauman]

Great video! I would be interested in how you integrate wind power. You briefly talked about it. My strategy has always been multiple power generation options ( solar, wind, human) following closely with yours. 705 is a great radio! I own one and really enjoy its versatility. Thanks again for your excellent videos!

[@OH8STN]

Thank you. Here's a video I did on charging lithium batteries with the wind turbine. It's totally experimental but adds that extra layer of margin. Eventually, I'll have shunts on all the strings.And the wind turbines so how much energy they are bring in can be measured. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jmbclJSPmNpnb6s

[@InVinoVeritas.]

Meshstastic!! 👍

[@TallTimbersUSA]

WOW, the time, money, and knowledge that went into the ham shack is pretty bananas.

[@Subgunman]

I remember when I left the States several utilities were experimenting with broadband over power line. The companies hated it when we would bring up a sked on frequencies within the BPL spectrum. Don’t know why they chose ham frequencies in the HF spectrum to experiment with their experimental system. Motorola came up with a solution, they developed equipment that was up out of the HF spectrum of ham services.

[@Auharry]

Great to see your setup Julian 😊 Thumbs up from my side 73 from harry

[@OH8STN]

Thanks for the kindness. 73 Julian oh8stn

[@Burns14223375]

Great work sir

[@ibrahimambon2626]

Very nice video... Thank's

[@douglasvamateurradioandmore]

I have started with two 100 renogy panels and their charge controller. I am starting with making sure my radio equipment and some lights and anything that can be 12v powered is hooked up to solar. I am looking into the inverter system to power the shack hvac and some of the other loads. That will likely require the 48 volt system and i can supplement with the grid. My editing laptop will likely not be able to charge on 12V, which is where the 48 volt system to an inverter will come in. The heat in phoenix can be somewhat brutal at times. I have heard that yuma is worse. I love the desert, but the heat is grating at times.

[@ke8mattj]

I really like the set-up you have. I've been looking for a wind generator for windy days and been wanting to ask you what you use in your videos. Now I know. I think having everything 12v or 5vUSB is absolutely crucial if we are to have off-grid operations. I wish I knew about the DMR radios you have before I bought mine because of the USB charging aspect of it. I can charge them with USB, but it requires an upconverter and they'll still be shackled to a cradle charger. Oh well, lesson learned.

[@jhonsiders6077]

I have a 48KW CAT 3 phase unit and 1500 gallons of fuel for it here at the farm. For clean power I use a transformer that converts 3 phase 480 to single phase 240 volt power for the house and shop thru a transfer switch . You can buy a big genset very reasonable as so many large plants are being demolished and can be bought for near scrap price ! I’m my shack I have two TrippLite rack mount UPS units each can run it for 750 minutes with a 100 watt load. They were salvage too. Bargains are out there if you look for them . Sorry no letters given. Any one can look them up and get all of your information even your address !

[@michaelgale8184]

I'd be interested in the details of your USB PD power supply. That apparently doesn't cause RF. Thank you in advance and also thank you for all the work you done to document your testing.

[@PavelLarsson]

Thanks for the video! My question is about your thoughts on grounding of your power distribution network and the radios.

[@OH8STN]

Thanks, but what's tge question? Everything in my shack is grounded. The station has a ground network under the tower as well as a ground spike outside the shack. All radios antennas and power supplies are grounded to that network.

[@mikeyB357]

Cant stop the signal , Mel !

[@OH8STN]

Indeed! 73 Julian oh8stn

[@gravijta936]

Have you looked into thermal-electric generators? I wrote a research paper on them back in college, and the result was basically, if you're already heating your shack or shelter with fire, then they're could be worthwhile, but not worth starting a fire just for the electricity. We don't get a lot of sunlight here in the winter so solar isn't the best option. It sounds like you're pretty well setup with solar and wind, so maybe a TEG isn't worthwhile for you. I'm curious what you think.

[@OH8STN]

I would love a thermo electric generator! The only reason one hasn't been deployed for the off-grid ham shack project is it uses a diesel heater rather than a wood stove. There are two possibilities though. The first idea is scavenging the exhaust heat from the diesel heater, to power the TEG. This seems rather straight forward but there are some issues. The diesel heater has a start-up current of ~9 amps. If the TEG could produce more than 9A, it would be a win. The second is using a wood-burning stove. The issue I have is no space inside the shack for it. If I could figure out how to build a wood-burning stove outside the ham shack, while routing heat back inside, it would be extremely interesting.

[@Subgunman]

@@OH8STNthey do make small wood fired boilers that could be mounted in a small external shelter and then you run insulated pipes into the shack where you would have a radiator to pass on the heat. If the shack is very close to your QRH you could also run pipes into the home and heat additional areas. Only problem is that you have to feed the boiler with wood every so often but if you could place the TEG around the exhaust chimney you will have a very hot heat source. Cost might be an issue.

[@georgedandrade-hp1gds296]

Excelent description. Do you have the wind turbine power into your actual battery bank or it is apart in another system, because the difficult to obtain wind charger for LIFEPO4 batteries?

[@OH8STN]

It charges the actual battery bank. Have a look here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jmbclJSPmNpnb6s

[@Flatus4La]

Glad you are doing well Julian! Are your radios sharing any antennas and if so how are you managing that?

[@OH8STN]

The G90, VX1210 & JS8Call 705 share an antenna. There is an Alpha Delta 4x antenna switch to choose radios. 👍

[@2heavyb517]

Thank you for sharing your setup for a well thought out & resilient shack. Why do you use multiple charge controllers with 200 watts on each circuit?

[@OH8STN]

Since I prefer using the Genasun charge controllers (RF Quiet), my solar panel configuration needs to respect the power & current limitations of the controller specs. I certainly wish they would make a 20A model but so far that's a no-go.

[@ac0m-glennthompson432]

Julian, great video as always. What type ferrules do you use to connect the wires to the charge controller? I've looked at several different ones and can't figure it out. Also the one place I looked at, only sells in batches of 500. Any help is appreciated. Thanks & 73

[@richardsmith5001]

Julian thanks for the video as always. Im interested in those PD sockets your using, im assuming youve checked them out for QRM and they are fine or are they just less than home levels so not noticeable ? I have run into issues that ive only uncovered this last month with the ones ive been using in that they do not show any QRM on HF bands but were locking out signals on VHF and UHF by not allowing the digital squelch to open on my Wouxun. Infact it seems to be also my chargers for my 4G Mifi router and tablet also. Again not showing on HF bands. Many thanks

[@OH8STN]

I haven't noticed anything on hf. Let me test him in the coming.Week full spectrum and I'll make a blog post about them.

[@richardsmith5001]

@@OH8STN I would appreciate that thanks.

[@Don-mb9fo]

Always looking for ideas on how to maintain off-grid comms. Always watch your videos. Thanks for sharing your deployment. My question, not exactly on topic, but I thought I would ask anyway; Are you concerned with EMP or HEMP for your station(s) and power distribution system? Is this anything you might integrate with your setup and if so, which protection would you consider utilizing?

[@OH8STN]

This is probably something we should cover on the channel. There are multiple layers to this EMP problem. First we have to have an above average ground network. Antennas are grounded, Radio sir crowned it, and the hamshack itself is grounded. Second we have to understand if our radios are connected to external antennas, they're going to be destroyed if an EMP occurs while they are online. For this reason, I have a set of redundant radios stored in a faraday cage, which itself is stored in a root celler. The third point is two is one and one is none. Despite the cost, we must always accept the possibility of radio equipment being knocked out. Because of this we need to have contingency plans in place, Ticket our systems back up and running. Regarding our battery systems. Experts say batteries will not be affected by an EMP. I'm not sure how true that is and don't know how to test it effectively. What I do know?Is I have redundant systems for my battery storage as well. Those are offline and hidden , just like my redundant radioactive gear. This is also true for my solar panels. 73 Julian oh8stn

[@Don-mb9fo]

@@OH8STNThanks for your reply. Good information. Yes, redundancy is required. My saying is buy two, or none, not one. I too use a faraday shield for BU comms. Some of my friends think I'm nuts for going to all this trouble and cost. 73

[@gazsoimi]

have you considered using the stong laptop, and run ll the things as vm, it would cost way less power.

[@OH8STN]

I've thought about it, yes. One of the criteria was being able to take a system to a remote location, while the other systems remain in place. If I run everything on a single computer, I loose redundancy and the ability to deploy unique systems individually. Great Question 👍

[@gregorybirchfield4952]

👌🏻

[@chriscampton9626]

Where did you get the ailunce hd1 battery?

[@matteng2332]

73

[@W4TRI]

Wondering if you are monitoring the shore exercises there.

[@OH8STN]

Sadly. those comms are not sent in the clear. I have watched them buzzing the neighborhood subsonic during the exercises. Exciting for sure. Just hopin git doesn't happen for real.

[@eliezercohen2205]

Lots of questions but I'll stick to one for now. Is your shack connected to mains power and in case of an outage the batteries kick in or is it completely offline all the time?

[@OH8STN]

There is mains power available, but the station, lights, heater, ... are run entirely from the batteries. 👍

[@yv6eda]

Great tour video Julian! Thanks very much! Jorge VE3EAD

[@BlakeKnowledge]

How are you running your Meshtastic node? What hardware are you using? wisblock?

[@OH8STN]

It's early stages for my Meshtastic journey. At the moment Lilygo Tbeam on 433Mhz. It is connected to a tower mounted 433Mhz antenna. Some buddies of mine and I plan on putting a 868Mhz (EU) antenna up on the tower to get that band activated. I'll be showing the practical aspects of the journey on the channel and blog.'

[@stevesummersell3068]

For solar, my budget limits me to purchasing from Home Depot for the next year or so. Their main 2 charge controllers are Renogy and Grape Solar. Any idea of either would be RF quiet? My rig is an ICOM 705. 73! KQ4MNL

[@bill-2018]

I've had a 30 Watt p.v. panel for years to run my QRP 5 Watt maximum radio gear. 2 off 12 Ah S.L.A.B. batteries. No Sun today and very cloudy with rain. QRP so no great power drain and I still get out. I don't need a computer to run radio. G4GHB.

[@OH8STN]

Very nice. Every station should bd setup to run without grid power. The computer makes it possible to send and receive messages when I'm not at the radio. The station can also record swl programs with sdr.

[@DustinHenryOffutt]

Would you happen to have a diagram of your setup?

[@OH8STN]

Sorry. I'm not very good at making diagrams.And that's the only reason I don't have one. Perhaps I'll give it a go since people keep asking for it.

[@fukenbroken1]

I didn't notice any but fused junction blocks work very well at protecting individual components. You also should have fuses on those batteries to prevent a disaster.

[@OH8STN]

Thanks. I showed the ANL fuses in the safety features portion of the video near the end. There's fusss in between the batteries and bus bars and between the bus bars and power distribution. There's also fusing on power distribution before components. I've been thinking about fusing between between the batteries.As well. Is that what you mean?

[@fukenbroken1]

@@OH8STNThat is great! I won't have to worry about your radio shack burning down. :)

[@OH8STN]

🙏👍

[@albing1397]

Wow, a standard to emulate. WA9RYO

[@OH8STN]

Still lots of work to do ut thank you. 73 Julian oh8stn

[@BUY_YOUTUB_VIEWS.986]

TikTok put me on to yall!