Category: Solar

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Radio Outing 2024

While out camping last week, I ended up messing around with the radios again ( as one does when they’re by themselves in the woods). A week prior to leaving home, I set up some APRS objects indicating my operating positions, times, etc, so that people who may be interested might try to catch me on the air. I also posted about the info for this outing to Reddit, but some people on the internet sometimes don’t seem to understand what you’re trying to accomplish. That’s another story entirely.

I had the FTM-200 manpack set up in the car and running off battery power. I was mainly just seeing what repeaters I could hit while driving to my first camping spot at Silent Lake Provincial Park. The radio was also firing off APRS packets every minute or so in the background. I managed to make simplex contact with another operator (VA3JPS) between Khartum, ON and Denbigh, ON who was a few minutes ahead of me on the road. We chatted for awhile before I had to make the turn onto Highway 28 towards Bancroft. It was an enjoyable conversation and both of us had good reception and readability.

The first full day out, the weather was quite bad. I managed to get up on time, got the stove all set up to make breakfast, then checked the weather forecast. It was overcast when I got out of the tent, but was supposed to have been sunny. It was going to rain soon, HARD. I made up some oatmeal and as soon as I was done cleaning everything up, the rain began.

You asked for rain, you got it!

The rain lasted a few hours and enough came down that the ground was one big puddle. As a result, it coated my tent in mud, and even flung up enough to get the inside muddy too (downside to having some mesh walls). I couldn’t do much of anything for a while in the tent except for work on some crossword puzzles and have a nap. Once everything cleared up I went for a hike. I had missed my morning comms target, but figured I’d be able to do a bit of repeater testing while out in the forest.

The repeater for Bancroft, ON (VA3FOY) is ~20km away from the park. The results were better than I had anticipated. Some of the test locations were up high, while some were down near the lake shore. I used a GPS app on my phone to get a position reading at each location before transmitting on the radio. I only ended up testing up to km 9 of the trail (it’s something like 17km for the entire length and I entered the trail just before km 2) as the sun was beginning to go down. Due to being delayed by the downpour in the morning, I was running a bit late. I ended up exiting the trail just a few minutes before sundown. I had my headlight with me, but luckily didn’t need it. As a result of getting back late and being extremely tired I decided not to do any further long range comms attempts that night.

Red is S1-S3, Yellow is S4-S6, and Green is S7-S9+

The next morning I again decided not to make any attempts at long range comms. The tent was dry, but still needed a really good cleaning and needed to be dried out again before being packed up to move to the next park. It took ~40L of water to rinse the mud off, but the sun was out and I was able to let everything dry while making breakfast on the stove (this time eggs and breakfast sausages). I got everything packed up, had a good conversation with someone from a neighboring site, and departed for Ferris Provincial Park.

There was no one at Ferris when I arrived. Seems they close up the gatehouse after 2PM this late into the season. There was a note posted on the gatehouse indicating that a pass would not be required to be displayed in the vehicle or at the site as long as the site was booked. Seems that sometime in the last year they made the move to a fully digital system at Ferris. All the posts at the sites where you put your permits were replaced by new ones that only have the site number on them. First time I’ve come across this. Not a bad way to go.

Upon getting to my site, I began to unpack and setup camp once again. I left the radio on in the car and was listening to the local repeater (VE3KFR) as some locals were chatting. I even deployed the new solar kit I’ve been working on for the last few months for the first time (more on that later).

I managed to make the comms window for this night, but did not get any responses. That’s just how it goes. Attempts were made to connect with some Winlink stations that were fairly close, but I was unable to get into any of them using the manpack and Arrow II antenna. I was able to hit the VE3PBO repeater in Peterborough as I had the year prior, and had a QSO with VA3NW for a few minutes. This was all done using the new solar kit to power the radio.

The FTM-200 manpack is connected to the new solar kit just below the table

The next night was more of the same. Attempted long range contacts and Winlink connections to no avail. Managed to catch a net on the VE3PBO repeater. Seemed like it was an after action type of net regarding an emergency exercise that had been held recently. I did not participate, but it was an interesting listen.

I had also went on an excursion outside the park during the first day at Ferris. I decided to test the range of the VE3KFR repeater during that time. I also did the same when I left the park for home on the last day.

The next morning I got everything all packed up again and was on my way home. But not without a few stops first!

During this trip I had taken pictures of the power meter on the FTM-200 to gauge how much power was used during each session. For whatever reason, I’ve not been able to find all of those pictures, so I’m unable to publish any data on how well the battery did. All I know is that the 9Ah battery that I normally operate with powered the radio at 25W output with APRS going and a few QSO’s here and there while driving to these parks and back and never ran out of juice at any point. I want to say there was at least 6 amps used off the top of my head, but can’t be 100% sure. As far as the solar kit goes, there’s no way I’d get close to its rated capacity in the 2 days I used it.

Test results during the trip below:

Mobile 25W Output (FTM-200):

  • VA3JPS (Mobile simplex) – S9+ in most areas, barring 1 spot with a large hill between us.

Silent Lake – 5W Output (FT-70):

  • VA3FOY (Bancroft) – S3-S9 (see above map)
  • VE3BNI (Gilmour) – S3 from the lookout (couldn’t not make contact anywhere else in the park

Ferris 25W Output (FTM-200):

  • VE3OX – S9+. I believe this operator was using the VE3QAR repeater in Belleville which is linked to VE3KFR.
  • VE3PBO (Peterborough) – S9. Listened to the after action net that took place one night and spoke with VA3NW the night prior.
  • VE3KFR (Campbellford) – S9+. No issues here as this is the local repeater for Ferris PP.
  • VE3KPG-10 (Rice Lake) – Contact attempted for Winlink using Packet and VARA FM, no connection.
  • VE3BUY-10 (Baltimore) – Contact attempted for Winlink using Packet and VARA FM, no connection.
  • VA3NAI-10 (Newcastle) – Contact attempted for Winlink using Packet and VARA FM, no connection.

It was a bit of a weird outing. Wish it could’ve been better, but not too bad overall. Managed to get a good hike in, some exploration, and got to test out some more radio capabilities.

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Solar Box Project

During the summer, I started purchasing components for a solar box (solar generator). I am hoping to achieve 2 goals with it:

Firstly, I wanted to have a solar charger that I can charge all of my devices with while camping. There are commercially available chargers available, but they cost a good amount, and don’t usually have a power source built in. There is also the question of durability of some of the charge solutions. They are fairly light, thin and compact too which is handy for hiking, but I envision this as staying put once I get where I’m going.

Secondly, I also want to set up an off-grid simplex repeater at some point in the future and this is the first step towards making that happen. The main point of it being off-grid being that it can power itself, of course.

Solar Box Testing A
Initial Testing. Able to charge a power bank via USB with no issues.

This kit consists of a battery, a solar charge controller, a 12V socket, and the box.

I used a 7 amp, 12 volt sealed lead acid battery. I could’ve went either larger or smaller in capacity, but the most cost efficient was the 7A. The charge controller is rated to 20A, which leaves me some space to add another battery to increase the total amperage of the kit. The 12V socket is a dual socket and should come in handy for powering whatever radio I eventually end up using in the repeater and anything else that needs to be powered up alongside that. Lastly, everything is housed in a plastic .30 cal. ammo box. The battery and 12V socket are fused to prevent bad things from happening. Dead equipment is not good.

Solar Box Testing B
More testing.

A 25W solar panel is used to charge everything up. I went with this size because I want this to be running year round and there is usually less sun in the colder months and snow could also cause charging issues.

Solar Box Inside
A look at the guts. The charge controller readout will spike a bit higher than the panels max. output for a few seconds. Should only be reading ~1.4A max, not 1.6A.

The solar panel has a quick disconnect plug on it so I can pull everything apart for transport quickly. This ammo box is a temporary solution. This kit will eventually be built into a metal ammo can which will be necessary not only for durability in long-duration field conditions, but will also act as a ground plane for any antenna I decide to use for the repeater setup.

I was able to put some of my long-dormant electrical skills to use (if only some minor tinning and multimeter usage) with this project. The only thing I need to do now is to rig a switch to kill the power from the battery to the charge controller. As the panel has an LCD display, it does drain the battery if not in use.

Solar Box Under Sun
Doing it’s job under the sun.