Hello, just wanted to see if anyone was going to Burning Man this year. My Wife and I went last year and had fun, but I left the radio gear behind. This year I plan to work 20 and maybe 40 meters. I plan to use an Icom 7200 and 703. A 20m dipole will anchor the station and I may use a tripod mounted 40m ham stick also. For two meter will use will be an Icom HT. Plan to use a 60watt solar panel for power. Look for me around 14.305mhz.
The Northwest Nevada desert is not an ideal campsite, but if I can camp there I can camp almost anywhere. We have a 10X20 shelter and a 9ft.sq tent. Anyway, a week off work and I will not have to climb any antennas. We had planned to buy an RV but did not find anything in out price range. Might try for an RV next year.
73'S KA5SIW
I've wanted to check this out for years, but the time and money involved for me is difficult to come by. It would be great to hear some stories of your experiences, though.
Hi Jim,
There is a saying for sailboats that might as well apply to RVs: "Go small. Go now!" ;)
Unless you need the 40ft. to stretch out a dipole...
Gil.
Greetings, first post from a radio newbie, only just bought the license manual this afternoon on the way home from camping. I personally don't anticipate attending Burning Man, but a mobile solar powered radio setup is exactly the direction I'm heading, be it for Burning Man, a mass evacuation, a weekend camping trip or one of those rare days in Central Texas where the power fails and cities shut down when the temps drop below freezing... :o RV's are out of my price range as well, so instead I recently picked up a Ford E350 van with the intent of performing some limited version of a Sportsmobile/Quigley/UJoint Offroad conversion on it - make the interior hospitable, roof-mounted solar panels to power radio equipment, refrigeration or ventilation systems.
Thanks for putting the site together and the collection of shared wisdom - looking forward to a great deal of learning and eventually being able to make a contribution!
Hello,
Thanks for joining. I am getting into solar power myself. This is my next "unreasonable" purchase: http://www.amazon.com/PowerFilm-F15-600-Folding-Solar-Charger/dp/B002LCEQPU/ref=?ie=UTF8&m=A1VOUFSIGRIGBC (http://www.amazon.com/PowerFilm-F15-600-Folding-Solar-Charger/dp/B002LCEQPU/ref=?ie=UTF8&m=A1VOUFSIGRIGBC) I like the flexible panels, but for a truck, you might want the rigid ones... I'll build the charge controller from a kit... No RV for me, but I sleep really well in a tent ;)
Gil.
Guys,
First post!!! Where can I buy a charge controller kit?
Thks,
Philip
http://www.cirkits.com/scc3/ (http://www.cirkits.com/scc3/)
Gil.
Quote from: gil on September 04, 2012, 12:17:30 AM
Hello,
Thanks for joining. I am getting into solar power myself. This is my next "unreasonable" purchase: http://www.amazon.com/PowerFilm-F15-600-Folding-Solar-Charger/dp/B002LCEQPU/ref=?ie=UTF8&m=A1VOUFSIGRIGBC (http://www.amazon.com/PowerFilm-F15-600-Folding-Solar-Charger/dp/B002LCEQPU/ref=?ie=UTF8&m=A1VOUFSIGRIGBC) I like the flexible panels, but for a truck, you might want the rigid ones... I'll build the charge controller from a kit... No RV for me, but I sleep really well in a tent ;)
Gil.
That solar panel roll is great, running a small fan off of it would make summer tent camping in Texas considerably more comfortable! Definitely rigid framed panels for the roof of a van http://sportsmobile.com/5_sys_solar.html (http://sportsmobile.com/5_sys_solar.html) and there's plenty of room inside to store a couple of deep cycle batteries, which I'm guessing will give me a lot of radio configuration options.
Great Trip!
We had a great trip. The Burning Man paper ran an article on me and there were 3 hams that stopped by to visit. There were 3 people that stopped by to visit and learn more about ham radio. The Icom 7200 worked great, not the best of conditions using a 20meter inverted V antenna. I used fiberglass poles to run the antenna up and tied the antenna off to our camping canopy.
I don't know if we will attend next year, but we had fun.