ups uninteruptibble power supply

[scannersnstuff]

although i'm somewhat equipment savey,i have a question on something i've never dealt with. my area experience's frequent lightning storm's. i unplug my surge suppresor that power's my base scanner's every time.it get's to be a pain in the ass. a friend suggested a ups. anyone have experience using them for scanner's ?.

are there any danger's ?.
i know there are a lot of variables.how much run time could i expect from 3 scanner's in a power outage ?.
any general advice ?.

 

[mobile1]

I think a UPS is the only way to go! When the power is off I can still use my base scanner to find out what is going on and when the power will be back on. I get about 1.5 hours run time from my UPS.

 

[DPapay]

UPS's are great, like the above poster noted. Just need to replace it about every five years because the battery/batteries will die. You probably do not need to unplug the surge protector, because that's what it is for. If there is a strike nearby, or a power problem heading your way, the surge protector should do its job and blow. The cost of a new protector is relatively low. If you are worried about lighning, and your scanners antennas are outside, you might want to invest in polyphasers. I myself believe lighning is going to do what it wants. I just stay indoors during storms....

 

[smason]

UPSes are great, but there's really not much reason to use them with radio gear.
The same batteries that give you 1.5 hours of run time, would likely last 16 hours or more if powering the scanner directly, and not wasting a lot of energy converting to 120VAC. Most base scanners have a 12v input.

I keep a 12v gel cell charged, plus I can use my portable battery booster which has a cig lighter plug on it.

 

[SCPD]

I have a sealed deep cycle battery on hand that I charge with a very good battery charger built for exactly this purpose. I don't have much room in my condo so I keep the unit charging in the garage. I don't have any 12 volt hookups for the scanners, but do for my ham base transceivers. I really should have a a couple of cables prepared to run the scanners on 12 volts.

For the scanners, I have to use an inverter or turn on the handhelds. I keep 5 battery packs charged for my PRO-96, and have one extra for my PRO-92. I have similar arrangements for my ham handhelds and they are used for public safety scanning as well. I have 4 ham handhelds. I have a small solar charger for AA batteries that could be used for the scanners if I were to run out of juice for the scanners. I also have a large quanity of alkaline AA batteries on hand. I have purchased the alkaline battery pack adapters for all my ham handhelds.

I have a small UPS unit for the computer, just large enough to make sure I can shut everything off when the power fails. The capacity is about 1 hour.

All of this gets me through the average power outages we have in the area. The longest outage I've been through in this area is 36 hours. The means I've listed above will easily get me through one of that length. In a larger disaster situation all bets are off. I would love to live in a house and have room for a generator, a safe place to store some gasoline or a have a propane powered generator, more batteries, and solar panels on the roof. Dream on huh!

I have researched and listened to the radio systems of the utility companies for everyplace I've lived. Great listening during winter storms and some of the best information you can have during an outage. I've traveled around and found the names of all the circuits in the local distribution system. At some point along the circuit the name is shown on a pole, usually the manual switch location that opens/closes the circuit, or on pad mount transformers, etc. This is essential information to decipher the traffic I hear.