In preparing for my rove to the Texas Panhandle for the 2019 June VHF contest, I first added a 6 meter amplier to help generate a bit more power and get closer to the levels allowed for the Limited Rover category. With that in place I needed to make some serious adjusments to my DC power system.
How Did This Start?
This all started out with some satellite roving using a 35 amp/hour battery. Then when I started to do some VHF contest roving, I used the cigar lighter outlet in the back of the SUV in parallel with the battery. That worked OK, but was prone to drop the voltage level at the rig after lots of operating. I didn’t feel that set up would work at all well with an amplifier, particularly with FT8 and MSK144 transmissions.
Escalating Systems Engineering
As usual with these things, I start contemplating what’s needed and quickly escalate things to an entirely new level. In this case I tried to find some online resources to guide my effort. There was not much out there. But I did find K0BGs excellent website for mobile amateur radio operators. He helped me recognize the potential issues around using the cigar lighter outlet and provided superb insight into test equipment and more.
Buy More Cool Gear
I then found the Buddipole POWERplus that serves to match up the automobile power with the extra battery and also uses Powerpole connectors for routing the power. Plus, it has a nifty screen for keeping track of everything. That seemed like the perfect way to bring all this together. That also caused me to reach out to DX Engineering for a PowerPole crimper and then to Powerwerx for some different connectors (red and black permanently fused together) along with #10 wire and plastic caps for when the automobile cable isn’t in use.
Bring in the Pros
Then I stopped by a local car audio systems installer — Soundwerk Car Audio Systems — and had them install a fused #8 wire from the battery to the back of my SUV. I’d thought of doing this myself, but running a wire through the firewall gave me concerns. Better to have the pros do the install.
Finally, I added a short length of #10 wire to the #8 wire to make the transition into the Powerpole connectors and into the PowerPlus. I’m now in the process of building the cables needed for the 6 meter amplifier and the IC-9100, you can see the 9100 cable in the photo at the top of this post.
Ready for the VHF Contest
So there you have a brief recap of my experience so far — ever escalating levels of engineering and expenses. But I’m hopeful it will provide days of trouble-free power to my VHF roving this coming weekend.
For more information about the Buddipole POWERplus, see QST Magazine May 2019, page 51 for a thorough review by Rick Palm, K1CE.
