Green Activation of SS08 for NPOTA

I used a solar panel plus a supercapacitor bank to replace a battery for today's activation of SS08 which is the Gulf Islands National Seashore. A Green activation counts toward being Five Star Activator in the National Parks On The Air Event. A solar controller controls the current to maintain the voltage. This acts very much like a battery. There was plenty of sunshine to keep it going.

58 Farad supercapacitor bank

The rig was the KX3. I ran 10 watts most of the time. But on 20 meters SSB the KX3 was kicking down to 5 watts. The pile up did not seem to notice. I later tried a LiFEPO4 controller and it works better because the voltage setpoint is 14.6 volts instead of 13.5.

100 watt solar panel

A solar controller on the right is used to maintain the voltage

I also used the Chameleon Windom 40 with several masts. The NPS asked me to avoid using the trees. I started on 40 CW with friends, K4GXV, WB4BLX and WD0HBR. Things really picked up on 20 CW and SSB. I got 57 contacts total.

The KX3 ran 10 watts most of the time

A Chameleon Windom 40 supported by several masts

The temp was in the 40s but the sunshine made it tolerable so Suzy and I operated outside, I think this shows you don't need a 100 rig because the fish will bite any hook you have.  I used about 1.74 amp hours. My last activation I used 16 amp hours running 50 to 100 watts. This time the source was entirely solar. There was no commercial source involved. That is Green as it gets. I might try to charge the supercapacitor with a human power generator in the future. Any volunteers to pedal?

Suzy

Seagulls

The view of the bay on the North side of Okaloosa Island