AC/DC power station...?

[mparker]

Hey group, I am currently studying and equipment prepping for General class.

I have been looking at power supply's and I am very interested in the Samlex 1223. It provides 23A and also maintains a battery and will automatically switch to the battery for additional current and during a power outage.

My main goal is a simple and clean appearance of the shack... Wifey lets me setup on a desk in the dinning room IF I keep it clean and uncluttered.

I was thinking about mounting a deep cycle or two and this power supply in the basement under the shack location.

Has anyone else built a dedicated power supply "station"? I usually only see desktop type power supply's.

 

[K7MEM]

It looks like a good power supply. For the price, it looks great. If you intend to use the battery backup capability, make sure you order the BBM-1225 module. Not that, battery backup is only intended to give you time to gracefully shut everything down. So don't use it in the battery backup mode for long periods of time.

It gets a lot of good reviews on Eham.net. Out of 145 reviews it gets a average rating of 4.4/5 . See the link below.

Samlex SEC-1223 Product Reviews

However, they do mention a modification that helps to reduce RFI. It may be worthwhile if you have RFI issues.

http://www.n0ss.net/samlex_1223_rfi_mods_from_zl2df.pdf

Martin - K7MEM

 

[mparker]

Alternatively, what would the difference be if I run a battery and a changer/maintainer? I personally like the NoCo Genius chargers but they are very low amps.

 

[K7MEM]

Alternatively, what would the difference be if I run a battery and a changer/maintainer? I personally like the NoCo Genius chargers but they are very low amps.

That is also a viable alternative. If you read the manual on the Samlex 1223 you will see that the charging of the battery backup is also low current. So a low current charge should not be an issue.

The big power drain on the power supply will only happen when you are transmitting. Which is probably only 15-20 percent of the time. During receive there should be very little current drain allowing the charger to catch up on the charge.

Note that there may be some issues with charging a battery in your house. Lead acid batteries tend to give off fumes when being charged.

What kind of setup do you have? Are you running a 100 watt low band rig, or just some low power VHF/UHF rigs?

If you really wanted a nice setup, you might consider solar cells for charging the battery. Solar charge controllers are available that isolate the battery from the solar cells when the charge isn't sufficient. I built a battery/solar setup for a friends FT-817, so he could take it hiking. It's a QRP rig so the battery requirements were not very high but it can easily scale up to something more powerful.

Martin - K7MEM

 

[mparker]

That's a awesome idea! I am definitely not opposed to elaborate DC distribution system. Obviously scaled down for radios

Currently I use a Icom 2200 and a Jetstream 25A PS.. I've been thinking about the IC718 for shortwave listening then once I pass General I'll be good to go.

I intentionally was thinking along the lines of those sealed gel cell marine batteries.

I suppose I could use the Jetstream for the now HF radio and build a battery/maintainer for the 2m. It would be nice to power both radios at the same time for monitoring.

 

[bharvey2]

The DC power is a good idea. When I was a kid and still doing the CB thing, that's how my brother and I handled power - a rechargeable car battery and a float charger. If you go that route, you definitely need to take some extra precautions. You'll need to provide ventilation for the charging area and your conductors running to you shack upstairs will need to be sized and fused accordingly. Fuses need to be downstairs as close to the battery as possible.

 

[mparker]

Humm. Maybe this is all a pipe dream. I could see this costing a lot of money. Lol

Maybe I'll just buy the Samlex and slowly piece together a DC backup system.

 

[bharvey2]

From what you've described of the Samlex, you wouldn't be burning any bridges. You'd be building an AC power station with battery backup. Not a bad deal at all.

 

[WA0CBW]

If you mount the battery some distance from the radio be sure you size the wire take into account the voltage drop.
BB