29-09-2024, 10:09 PM
Hi Damien,
sorry to hear a friend has lost some access to some of the SW bands, there are some sure fire choices on the inverter front but saying that now is of no help to him I guess.
In my case it was the NBN antenna that wiped out HF for me and after an 'upgrade' to a newer version I was able to listen to the AM broadcast bands and 160mx again. Solar and battery have been very quiet, only when the battery is fully charged do I hear a few whimpers on some spot frequencies on HF.
I eventually went to a battery as our power has been terribly unreliable over the majority of my time living here in the outer Barossa, the Grid connected battery gives us some degree of blackout protection and allows us to time shift our solar generation into the night time, where we are generally 100% self powered if the sun has been kind during the day.
Many of the major companies pay you a pittance for your Solar exports and it can feel like you are being used when you compare the rate you buy at and the rate for the same electrons you have put into the grid.
I will not go all soap box on why to buy solar, I am sure there are many financial reason about why not to do it but some times there is more than just the money that counts. For me, I am about to add a second battery with my last pay day from my current job (my last job I hope) and will use that to sure up the power reserves and dabble in the wholesale power market. These may be my famous last words but hope it works out for me as many many others are already doing it.
As I want to keep running VHF WSPR and listening on SIX 24x7 I have had to do something about our power bill or it will become a problem as I stop working soon.
sorry to hear a friend has lost some access to some of the SW bands, there are some sure fire choices on the inverter front but saying that now is of no help to him I guess.
In my case it was the NBN antenna that wiped out HF for me and after an 'upgrade' to a newer version I was able to listen to the AM broadcast bands and 160mx again. Solar and battery have been very quiet, only when the battery is fully charged do I hear a few whimpers on some spot frequencies on HF.
I eventually went to a battery as our power has been terribly unreliable over the majority of my time living here in the outer Barossa, the Grid connected battery gives us some degree of blackout protection and allows us to time shift our solar generation into the night time, where we are generally 100% self powered if the sun has been kind during the day.
Many of the major companies pay you a pittance for your Solar exports and it can feel like you are being used when you compare the rate you buy at and the rate for the same electrons you have put into the grid.
I will not go all soap box on why to buy solar, I am sure there are many financial reason about why not to do it but some times there is more than just the money that counts. For me, I am about to add a second battery with my last pay day from my current job (my last job I hope) and will use that to sure up the power reserves and dabble in the wholesale power market. These may be my famous last words but hope it works out for me as many many others are already doing it.
As I want to keep running VHF WSPR and listening on SIX 24x7 I have had to do something about our power bill or it will become a problem as I stop working soon.
Peter Sumner, vk5pj
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.
- Winston Churchill
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.
- Winston Churchill