Some interesting equipment.


Radio gear

The top shelf contains three TNCs and radios that are part of a ax.25 packet system. TNCs: MFJ TNC-X, Timewave PK-96, PacComm Tiny-2 MK-2. Radios: Alinco DR-135 MKII, DR-235 MKII, Tait TM8115.

Then we have some 440 duplexers, a Yeasu System Fusion DR-2X repeater, the WOPR (computer running all this stuff), another Yeasu DR-2X, switched receptacles, Pakedge P2 Ethernet controlled receptacles, shelf holding a Alinco DM-330MV power supply, more 440 duplexers, Icom ID-RP2C D-Star repeater Controller, Icom ID-RP4000V UHF digital voice repeater.

To the right of the rack sits two sets of VHF duplexers.

The WOPR computer, a 19” 2U computer in the radio rack that runs this stuff has an ASROCK ITX-3455 main board. This is a low power setup, using less then 25W. Moving around voice packets and being a local NAS just doesn’t need much power. The WOPR runs OpenSuse Leap and hosts 4 virtual machines. Lubuntu for the packet node, CentOS for the D-Star gateway, pi-hole for local add blocking, and a Windows 7 VM for the Yeasu fusion stuff. WTH Yeasu? No Linux support? Really? (Not a Yeasu fan)

Solar Electric

The heart of the solar electric system is the Outback Power Systems inverter on the right under the wall mount 19” equipment rack. Its a 3700W continuous, 7200W for 15s utility interactive inverter. To its left is a DC breaker box and one of the two Mate MX charge controllers. The other charge controller is just to the right of the window. Hard to miss are 8 blue Fullriver DC335-6 batteries in the battery rack. Not in the picture is the 2.2KW solar array.

The system chooses solar power first, utility power second, and batteries as a last resort. This is because the grid is a very efficient system for storing energy. A lot more efficient then batteries. On top of that if the batteries were cycled regularly they would need to be replaced more often.

This system was installed in 2005. I have had no issues of mention with the exception of having to replace the batteries twice so far.

Powered directly off the inverter are fridge, furnace, radio gear, garage doors, computer room receptacles, and general lighting circuits. When the power fails these circuits are automatically powered by the batteries with a transition time so fast that you won’t notice anything. Other circuits loose power but can be manually switched over. Originally all circuits transitioned automatically but this is problematic because if the power fails when you are not home you may kill your batteries running things like electric heaters, window AC units, dehumidifiers, etc.

We can run, if conservative, for ? 24 hours off batteries. If we get a lot of sun we can run necessary equipment for long periods of time. Recharging from a generator can be done if needed.

Ethernet Equipment

In the 19” equipment rack on the wall has a POE switch, cable modem, pfsense router with 2X LANs. One for the radio network, one for local stuff. The WOPR (mentioned above) has an add on PCIE 4 port LAN card. This allows it to participate in the radio LAN, local LAN, dedicated port for the D-Star controller, and one port bridged into the radio LAN for the Ethernet switched receptacles.