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I'm looking into the best way to set up my station to run on batteries
and on commercial power. Most of the options narrow down to two basic
concepts: uninterruptible and manually switched.

A manually switched system would involve two or more power panels
(West Mountain has some really nice RIGrunners that would be perfect),
one for commercial power and one for each bank of batteries. Battery
banks would be charged independently of the commercial power used for
day-to-day operations. When power fails, unplug the components from
the commercial power panel and plug them into a battery bank panel.
When one bank of batteries is drained, unplug the components and plug
them into another bank so the drained bank can charge. There's a bit
of manual labor involved and there's a little more of an investment in
capital, but it's brain-dead simple and it works.

An uninterruptible system would be more complicated. The ARRL has a
collection of articles in their members-only system on how some hams
have set these up. One series of articles is by a ham who uses
several different types of batteries -- some float, some deep cycle,
some of some other kind -- and who has this intricate wiring network
to support everything. I would be afraid that I'd spend too much time
babysitting something like that, and all that extra time and effort
wouldn't be worth the few minutes saved when transitioning from
commercial power to battery power.

I am interested in real-life comments from those who have used either
system. Bonus points to those who have web pages describing their
systems in detail, explaining the costs and benefits and decisions
behind the design. Right now, I'm leaning towards a manually switched
design due to the simplicity of the system and the incremental nature
in which it can be built, but I'm at a good point to consider
alternatives.

Jack.
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Jack Twilley
jmt at twilley dot org
http colon slash slash www dot twilley dot org slash tilde jmt slash
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