RMHAM-U Solar on the Solstice

The 2024 winter solstice, a wonderful day for RMHAM U’s “Solar Power: Planning and Design by Doug K2AD and John W0VG”. What started out as a two-man presentation turned into a tag team event with a variety of presenters covering the aspects of this interesting and sometimes complicated topic from theory to hands on. The first addition to the presentation was Dr. Willem AC0KQ, one of his PHD’ s is in applied mathematics! Willem covered both the history and math involved in “photovoltaic power” Moving on towards the pieces that comprise the solar power systems, Tristan NM0TH, began with information on solar panels and the tag team expanded to include comments by Dave WA1JHK on tilting of panels, he later gave a detailed look at the system he designed and installed in his 5^th wheel camper. The presentation moved through all the required components from the types of batteries, with extensive detail on battery types, wiring schemes, connectors, changing controllers and many of the accessories that can be used with a system. The last part of the presentation was devoted to practical examples of solar ranging from POTA/SOTA operating to WA1JHK’s camper. Chris K0SWE discussed the use of Solar during an AuxComm deployment in support of the “Dirty Thirty” foot race at a difficult to access site in Golden Gate Canyon State Park. W0VG showing off RMHAM’s solar powered “Bunk House” which include a full-size refrigerator, the Mosquito and Breckenridge solar repeater sites and K2AD discussing the location of the planned solar on his property. We were treated throughout by the banter and “back and forth” of the tag team of a half dozen presenters and the stimulus of numerous questions for the “in house” audience and those who “ZOOMed” into the presentation. The slide deck with all the photos, charts and graphs is in the Course Syllabus, History & Video tab under RMHAM UNIVERSITY menu tab.