Ron, What gauge wire do you use to run the DC upstairs?
I have some heavy silicon jacketed welding cable that I have
considered using if I ever get around to building a real exteranal
battery "bank". The main killer with normal wire is the heavy IR
losses. 0.5 V at 12V is a killer.

I occasionaly, at rare moments mainly during T-storms, actually use
my ham gear to talk. 8A max for 2mtr, about 10A on voice peaks for
SSB. The rest of the time I draw less then 5 amp with every +12V
device in the shack on. Which isn't all that often.

I have an 15A magnetic breaker on each gell cell. And individual
breakers sized to meet the normal current demands per device.
I have a 6A meter, that only monitors the non ham gear. For most of
my devices I use 2A mag breakers. This allows me to rapidly power
down entire sections. The R2000s draw about 150mA each even when
off for the clock, by switching off the +12V I avoid sneak devices that

might use juice even when off. My 12Amp supply is slighlty overloaded
on voice peaks, but Lambda underates their supplies. It will deliver 16
Amps for 20 minutes before it goes into thermal fold over.

I have 2 clocks, on a 24Hr clock I built based on an early LSI (5314)
chip with a built in backup/keep alive 9V nicad. My other clock is from
my
1981 Subrau that we drove to death. The frame rusted through. Both
clocks dfrasw abut 50mA with the display on, and less then 1mA
displays blanked. A much better power load then the R2000s.

I have based my design on what I saw in a military comm center.
I have a 12A and a spare ready to turn on 12A, and my older 8A
supply in the bottom of the closet. I bought all the parts surplus for
less then pennies on the dollar. All told I have no more then $100
in my entire power system. And that inlcudes the PV arrays, gell cells,

everything.

As I mentioned before I have found the canon/amphenol 4 pin XLR
connectors to be great, safe for 12V DC. The broadcast industry
ony uses pins 1 and 4, I added 2 and 3 (1&2 and 3&4) this halves the IR
losses, doubles the current from ~10 to 20. Each of the power loads,
IC28A, HTX100 gettheir own XLR, the receive section has it's own 4 pin
XLR that feeds a set of individually protected 5.5/2.1 coaxial power
connectors. Presently I have 5 more scokets then devices. I mounted
them on a piece of angle alumium and run male to male coaxial power
cords. Makes changing things pretty simple. Each breaker is labeled
to help avoid confussion. Sounds a lot more complex then it realy is.
I try to only get gear that will work directly on +12V. But sometimes a

good deal on "odd" powered radios like the DX398 come along, so I
use LM117 to reduce the voltage. When ever I can I build the regulator
in the device.

I added several "cigerette lighter" sockets because it is handy to be
able to power up things like cell phone chargers froma clan DC source.

I also added a 20 Amp mag breaker, both + and - to switch to an
external power source like an automoble.

Again this all sounds much fancier then it really is. Back in 1974 I
learned
to not depend on the public power company. The tornados that came
through on April 3 that year knocked out power for several days. And
my all of my radio gear required 120V AC. I decided then and there,
sitting in the dark that the next time the lights went out I would
still be
able to listen.

31 years later I think I have suceeded fairly well.

Terry