The WA6TJQ repeater is powered by solar and wind energy, this makes the system very usefull during power outages.

The system will remain online, ready to provide a communications link to all amateur radio operators within the repeaters coverage area. The new 50 watt amplifier is powered by a 35 amp Astron rack mount power supply and in the event of a power outage the repeaters amp drops out of the circuit and the repeaters output on solar wind power is reduced to 15 watts.

Communications from the High Desert, over the hill into San Bernardino, and as far away as Fountain Valley, Newport Beach, Pomona, Ontario, and even Hemet are possible.

The (First photo) is of the two 75 watt solar panels, the panels deliver 8.8 amps of charge current to the battery bank. And in the (Second photo) you can see the Southwest Windpower Air 403 12 volt 25 amp wind generator.

BATTERY BANK

The photo above shows my current battery bank, I have 4 125ah batteries tied in parallel for a total of 500ah, I plan on adding one more 125 ah battery next week.

SOLAR/ WIND POWER CONTROL SYSTEM

Above you can see where the power from both the solar panels, and the wind generator come together, the two large gray boxes on the left are the solar panel and wind generator disconnect switches...The meter above these two disconnect boxes is the wind generator amp meter.The large gray box on with the red tag is the house disconnect box and fuse box...the four small white boxes are junction points where the wiring from the solar panels and the wind generator enter into the shed from the outside....

The blue box on the right is a amp and volt metering panel as well as the controls for the solar tracker as well as the disconnect switches and controller transfer switches.

I have two solar controllers..The main unit is a ASC 12 amp PWM controller mounted inside the blue metering and control box to the right, and a Trace 30A controller for backup...

From here the power travels 50 feet under ground and then into the attic of the house, and from there to the back room where the repeater is located.

Here are a few photo's of my new smaller 20 watt solar array is now being installed as a secondary backup power source for the repeater, and my two low power 144/220/440 Kenwood THF6A radios.

This system is made up of two 10 watt solar panels and a group of four 20ah gell cell batteries. The charge controller is built inside the control box which has metering for both volts and amps.

I will be adding more photos of the system as soon as the install begins. The sole purpose of this secondary system is to help maintain battery power to the repeater, and to operate my low power 144/220/440 mhz radio station in the event the main solar system goes down.

(More To Follow)

Well I almost met my install date, It is September 17 2008 and the new panels are installed and running the repeater. I had a 1 hour QSO today on the repeater today and the system worked fantastic. The mount as well as the panels were purchased off ebay for about $225.00. The pole was just an old push up mast I had here at the house...Charge controller is an ASC 12 volt 8 amp unit.