Radio Society of Greater Bixby

It takes about 35 Ah of battery power to run a hundred Watt rig for 24 hrs at Field Day. That’s most of the ‘usable’ capacity (50%) of a 100 Ah lead acid battery, but only 35 of those new hundred Ah LifePo batteries, and you can buy those used on EBay for just over $100. (LifePo batts are good for thousands of cycles over 10 years so you’re unlikely to wear out a used one.)

Another nice item to have overnight at FDay is a battery powered light. Again, EBay has some nice rechargeable table lamps for around twenty bucks. They’ll run for hours and charge with a phone charger type cable. (Two for $40. Let the XYL have one in the living room. Oh yeah, and that’s how you sell the idea to her, lights on when the power goes out.)

LifePos aren’t the ones that catch fire and blow up. That’s Lithium Ion like your phone, that living room light above, and Teslas. LifePos may fail, but they usually don’t catch fire and don’t emit clouds of toxic smoke. Also, the 12V one as above remain in the 13 to 13.5 range almost their entire discharge curve, so your rig will put out normal full power unlike with a lead acid that gets into the elevens half way down.

Hey, uh, what’s with that pic above? Is it done, like, with mirrors?