040125 – Cape Perpetua Visit
N7HQR 4 hours
During a storm we lost connectivity on Cape Perpetua. The 147.060 repeater went down as well as the packet APRS weather station.
Upon arrival at the site today, there was no AC power in the rack and the battery was at 6 volts. The setup is a dedicated 20 amp receptacle for our rack, that feeds an outlet strip in the rack. Most of the equipment plugs into the outlet strip, including a UPS that powers the modem/router/computer stuA. I started looking at the outlet strip, and the circuit breaker was tripped on it, and the power switch looked scorched. I tried the turn the UPS on and it
would not run.
The power strip and UPS were removed from the rack and a temporary outlet strip was wired in. I powered up the majority of the equipment, reset the weather station and set the parameters and checked to make sure the weather was making it out on APRS. The battery voltage was too low to safely charge it with the small power supply we have on it, so the battery was removed and should likely be replaced. The 147.060 repeater was plugged in and powered up just fine.
As often happens with amateur radio, we put things together to get them working and it isn’t always the best that could be done. This site should have a few things done for the power situation:
- Replace the temporary outlet strip with an industrial rack mounted outlet strip
and surge protector. - Upgrade the power supply to one large enough to handle everything in the rack
and float the battery. - Install a low voltage disconnect (these little devices will disconnect the battery
before it discharges too low and gets damaged). - Replace the battery unless this original one comes back to life.
Interestingly, there were signs of arcing inside the case of the outlet strip which shows something faulted but I don’t see what it would have been. I suspect this occurred when the power went out and the generator started and restored power. Perhaps the UPS failed when the generator came back on and that caused the issue, I don’t know.
Here are the parts needed for the upgrade:
Low Voltage Disconnect – https://duracomm.com/product/din-lvd-12/
Power Supply – https://samlexamerica.com/products/12-volt-30-amp-battery-charger-safety-listed/
Outlet Strip – https://tripplite.eaton.com/single-phase-pdu-2400w-120v-13-5-1520r-outlets-5-20p-input-6-ft-cord-1u~PDU1226
That is about $700 in parts, if we need to get a battery that could be another couple hundred at least.
The view North from a little lower down the hill from the tower:
The rack as it was left today after restoring services:
Inside the damaged power outlet strip, notice the burn mark by the white wires:
73
Daron
