Building Better Battery Boxes

The need for emergency power is something every ham operator should take into consideration. Over the last few years, batteries have become more affordable, longer-lasting, lighter weight, or a combination of these qualities. The latest battery craze is for LiFePO4 (Lithium Iron Phosphate) batteries, a growing favorite among many makers and tinkerers for their light weight, long charge times, lower cost, and tolerances for hot and cold ambient temperatures. 

LiFePO4 batteries have also become a solid item in many hams' shacks for emergency power and can be used in golf carts, trolling motors, and even some Tesla automobiles will be investing in these types of batteries for lower costs to construct and better life-cycles.

The reasonable cost and the (much!) lighter weight are reasons I decided to invest in an emergency power source.

I had some prerequisites for needing such a power source:

• Light weight
• Portable
• Multiple means of providing power
• Anderson power poles
• USB
• AC power
• Car adapter
• Able to be recharged via solar or commercial power
• Easy to maintain and use

I searched on the internet for a compatible battery box to hold the battery and discovered the Hiximi battery box that looked to be the best fit. It had a built-in voltmeter with a switch that controlled two car adapters and 2 USB outlets. 

My next item was the star of the attraction: the battery! Again the LiFePO4 batteries were highly recommended from several hams for their tolerances to temperatures and their weight, along with the ability to maintain a steady power level during heavy use and drainage. I attended a POTA-Palooza event at Big Ridge State Park in the fall of 2024 and got to see several set-ups first hand. Some of the batteries were LiFePO4 batteries and I asked several of their owners how they functioned, were they happy with these batteries, etc. All gave a thumbs up to these batteries. One was
an ECO-WORTHY brand which was HIGHLY recommended and when I got home I found one on Amazon. I decided to go with the 50Ah battery, because, while I did not think I would ever need all of that potential energy, it still would be nice to have, and use it to power my HF rig over several hours, such as when operating the Tennessee QSO party.

As I waited for the battery, I looked over images of other battery boxes and contemplated what other items I would need. I would need a way to charge the battery, and a way to invert the DC to an AC output to allow household items to be plugged in. I went back to Amazon and saw that ECO-WORTHY also had a charger. It was compatible with several battery types including LiFePO4 batteries. This is something to consider when getting a charger, that it specifically be compatible to the battery you purchase. 

While on a trip to Walmart, I stopped in the automotive department to browse the power inverters, and found an Everstart 750W version. While this version I linked is slightly different cosmetically, itis still the same as the one I obtained. Along with a high wattage and two AC plugs, it also has 2 additional USB ports that can be used along with the 2 onboard the battery box. 

As I waited for most of the parts to arrive, I also considered the need for solar power to recharge the battery. I found solar panels were getting to be fairly affordable as well, so I looked on Amazon (again) and found a 100W foldable solar panel that best fit my requirements for portability, compactibility, and a built-in charger controller that allowed for the panels to charge the battery without the possibility of chargeback to the panels if the battery is fully charged. It uses anderson power poles, so I ended up going to a local hamfest and purchased a power pole socket to connect to the battery. 

Once everything was ready to set up, it took about 2 hours to set everything up the way I wanted. Putting in the battery was the easy part. It came with foam padding from the delivery, so I just moved it all into the battery box and it fit perfectly. The padding keeps the battery from jostling around in a loose box. 

The ECO-WORTHY battery came with a socket to use for screwing down the wires to the terminals on the battery. I taped it to the battery after use to keep it handy in case it's needed. While showing it off to a battery box expert (Bill, KK4PAL) he noted that the socket would perfectly line up with the terminals and possibly cause a short if the stars aligned. I agreed and will probably cover the ends in plasti-dip or something similar to insulate it. For now I used electrical tape around the ends to prevent the possibility of a short.

After sorting out the battery install, I needed to install the inverter and charger/controller. I installed the controller on the outside chassis of the box using the supplied screws and liquid nails for ensuring a firm seal. The internal padding also keeps the sharp ends of the screws from scraping and possibly puncturing the battery.

The charger SHOULD ALWAYS BE OUTSIDE OF THE BATTERY BOX due to the high heat it produces and that heat could shorten the life of any battery you use. If I am being transparent, I initially wanted to put it in the box to save space, but fortunately it wouldn't fit and Bill advised it is always good to keep the charger out of the box so that it doesn't overheat while charging, which could cause thermal breakdown issues with the battery, shortening its lifespan.

Next was the inverter. I had to install on the outside as well since it needed the AC plugs on the outside. Because it has a cooling fan, it is best to keep it outside the battery box to allow the cooling fan to do its job for keeping the inverter cool when higher current-drawing products are plugged in (like fans, TVs, and lamps). I also added ferrite cores to all the wires of all devices to help minimize any potential electromagnetic interference or HF interference.

With the box, the 50Ah battery, charger/controller, and inverter, the box weighs in at 21lbs. With a smaller battery, it will obviously weigh less, but 21lbs with a LiFePO4 battery is MUCH lighter than trying to use a Lithium-Ion or a lead-acid battery. And again, it's better to have more than enough power than not enough.

After setting up the box with all of this, I took it for a few test runs, setting up my go kit, running a few devices on it (floor lamp, chargers, camera, etc) and it's been almost flawless. But I needed to get solar capability set up, so I got my 30a Anderson power pole mount and proceeded to drill a hole in the opposite side to where the USB and car chargers were. It took less than 15 minutes to set up the port and within 30 minutes of that, I had the solar setup completed. 

The next sunny day I took the panels out and set them up and they worked perfectly to keep the battery box charged while I tested HF with my go-kit. 

The first true test came at last month's Tennessee QSO Party, where I plugged my kit into it and ran the radio for 11 hours. It kept going throughout the entire event and never went below 13.1V.

I took it to the Clinton Amateur Radio Society meeting and Bill KK4PAL was giving a talk on battery boxes. As mentioned earlier, he's a battery box expert, having built several over the last few months. He looked over my build and was impressed by the design, and attendees asked many questions about my battery box and I had a few handouts with all the details. A PDF of everything in my battery box is here. A Youtube video of Bill's presentation is below:

I took it to the East Tennessee Hamfest and was planning to discuss SKYWARN, and I brought my battery box to power the laptop. More people were interested in the battery box than they were about SKYWARN (maybe because I preach it every chance I get). And recently I took it to do a POTA operation and again, it did everything it was designed to do. 

I even used it recently to help keep my mother's portable oxygen concentrator running during a power outage at our home. With her being on oxygen now, the box has become a critical component in keeping her assured we can keep her oxygen supply going for as long as needed. Her concentrator will last about 4 hours on a charge. With my battery box, we may have at least 24 hours is my guess.

Here are my key takeaways with the battery box:

1. I enjoyed building it, but Bill's battery boxes look more robust and I plan to set up a portable digipeater, so Bill's setup will be more conducive to my needs for putting it on the air. I will be reaching out to him soon to put one together for me as I already have another battery and charger ready to go.
2. I will probably install another set of power poles to have power OUT from the battery to power compatible devices. I could go ahead and use the solar input but I want to keep them separate and use the onboard switch to also control the power pole port.
3. This was an expensive box to build overall, but definitely more affordable than one I thought to build just a few short years ago. 
4. Now with my mother on oxygen, this has become an even more valuable tool to have not just for radio. 

It pays to check your ground!

The last few months I've seen some strange things amiss at my house that are out of the ordinary. I lost some electronics to lightning in April. My computer, a couple of wifi routers, cable modems from my ISP, and possibly a couple of appliances in the kitchen all became victims of lightning. Not a direct hit, but, as I have had occur before, static from a nearby strike ran in and toasted the stuff.

I suspected I had an issue with my ground system, but wasn't sure the best way to deal with it. I talked with one ham on the radio about it and he said it was imperative that I check my grounding system. But things seemed fine with my electronics and as a precaution I began unplugging most of the sensitive electronics such as my TV, ham equipment, and cable equipment.

After my TV went out last month (due to what was eventually an unrelated issue) I called my friend Jason (KF4VDX) and he showed up the week before Christmas to check things out. My wiring in the house was fine and we changed out a breaker for the living room as it was needed anyway. Then we looked at the ground rod and discovered that the clamp to the rod was completely eroded and my ground rod and ground wire were BARELY touching!!!

The weather forecast called for thunderstorms the next day, and it was 10 o'clock at night when we discovered this, so the hardware stores were closed and I had no clamps here, so we ran to Walmart and looked for something...ANYTHING that would work in a fix. We settled on an automobile battery clamp and got the grounding issue settled. The next day I went to the hardware store and bought TWO ground clamps to ensure this would not happen again. Unfortunately with the rain (it was near constant the next several days) I couldn't get to it safely until the day after Christmas when I got back from a trip to the zoo with the family.

While I was at it, I took the wiring from my antenna and secured it to the electrical ground as well. Up until then I had it secured to a different ground rod. I was encouraged to put them on the same ground.

So life lesson learned. Sometimes, when I try to be a better ham, some of the most basic things are overlooked.

Rocky Beckner, K8DRB/ex WD8SBO SK

One of the main reasons I got seriously involved in ham radio was the aspect of emergency communications and community service that comes along with it. When I first got licensed I was doing bike races, 5k runs, and marathons for local track clubs.

Every Spring, the weather in East Tennessee can be some of the most complex in the country. One minute it's hot and sunny, the next it's cold and rainy. The thunderstorms in the region can rival a hot, muggy day in Tampa (the self-proclaimed "lightning capital of the world") and the occasional spurring of a tornado can make you think you're smack in the middle of "Tornado Alley" in the midwest.

I can recall a time when, as the weather got severe in these parts, there wouldn't be a SKYWARN net, just a gaggle of hams discussing what the weather's doing in their neck of the woods, or even better, "it ain't doin' nuthin' over here,"with subsequent discussion on their latest visit to the doctor...

Back in the early to mid-90's, that was the norm for these parts. It was especially frustrating for me, because I would often get in my '91 Chevy S-10 pickup truck and stupidly bravely chase these storms, and to not have a bona-fide way to report to the National Weather Service my observations (remember, this was before everyone and their mom had a cell phone). 

Then, along came Rocky Beckner.

He was living in Morristown at the time, having come down from his home state of Michigan, where he had helped with SKYWARN up there to get ham radio a permanent presence in the local weather office up there.

Whatever the reason he ended up here in East Tennessee (I've since forgotten) he made it a mission to get a ham station set up at the Morristown office. It wasn't just him, but he was a driving force in getting it done.

WX4MRX, circa 2000

The hamshack at the weather service was officially started in 1998. He was operating at the weather service about a year or two prior, often with his own equipment. The Lakeway Amateur Radio Club contributed some money and equipment and a government grant was given to the weather service office to secure the radios and cabling. Soon, Rocky was able to run a pretty slick operation from inside the weather service office. 

The station's initial callsign was initially KF4EKQ, which was quickly changed over to WX4MRX within a few weeks. 

Early on in the project, around 1994, Rocky came to know me well, and apparently so did some of the meteorologists who worked up there at the time. I can't count the number of times he would chastise me on the air (or off) for chasing these storms in these parts, sometimes at night, with little/no knowledge of weather myself. He couldn't STAND it when I was operating "stormchaser mobile". I do admit I was so full of piss & vinegar I didn't care what he (or any meteorologist) thought, I was having fun and doing daredevil stuff years which I'd been doing YEARS before "Twister" hit movie theaters (and blasphemed stormchasers everywhere in my opinion).

The current setup at WX4MRX

Then on May 18, 1995, there was an outbreak across the area that was part of a larger outbreak across Tennessee. This event changed how I respected weather and what I felt my "calling" was in ham radio. It had already been an active day weather-wise, and I was attending a RACK meeting but took my radio in and had it on the then-wide area repeater on English Mountain. Barely 15 minutes into the meeting I heard the then-used EBS tone and the announcement that a tornado warning had been issued for Anderson County, to the west of Knoxville. I stood up and let everyone in the meeting know, then booked it to the "chase vehicle". I headed north on I-75 towards Raccoon Valley Road, and I saw the cell that spawned the warning, but if there was a tornado, it was wrapped in rain. As I approached the Raccoon Valley Road exit, a golf-ball sized hailstone hit my windshield. It didn't crack, but I took the hint to get the hell off the road, because I was on a stretch of Interstate with no way of turning around, and little options if all hail broke loose. I quickly got off the Interstate at the exit and found shelter under a gas station awning right as the hailstorm hit. Baseball and softball sized ice rained down overhead, and fortunately the awning sheltered me. At one point I did hear the distinct "freight train" cliched noise, but never saw the tornado, nor did I see signs of it doing damage, so it may have only been a funnel cloud.

I drove home, at the time living in north Knoxville, and got my Radio Shack HTX-202 on a local repeater. All I heard was a bunch of hams hollering that there "wasn't a net" and yet no one seemed to want to take the reigns and do something about it. So I grabbed a pen and some paper and started calling one. I'd had some net control experience with some area ragchew nets and tech nets, but this was going to be a new experience. Overall I did as well as I could, before a tornado touched down about 1/4 mile from my house and knocked out power and caused some pandemonium in my neighborhood.

I learned a lot that night, that I was much better at calling a weather net rather than trying to chase the damned things. Rocky wasn't aware of the net because we weren't on the normal repeater where we'd hear the him transmitting from. But he'd heard about it, and soon after I started finding out more about SKYWARN and studying more about weather, tornadoes, wind, hail, and flooding.

Once Rocky and friends (not sure about Moose and Squirrel) got the hamshack in full operation it was not uncommon to hear him at all hours, any given day of the week, whenever the weather went bad.

We became well acquainted as fellow net control stations and he warmed up to me as a Net Control more than as a very amateur stormchaser, and he even invited me to operate WX4MRX at the NWS office following a lengthy rainstorm that caused major flooding in the area. When he left to go back home to Michigan due to his health, I knew I'd never see him again, unless we both ended up checking out the Hamvention in Dayton, which never happened.  We'd email each other every so often, and he gave me some words of encouragement (albeit brief, but his emails were not much on content) when there was a "meltdown" in 2006 that forced me out of SKYWARN for a couple of years.

I'd send an occasional email to him about things going on down here, but he wouldn't respond much, if at all. I knew his health was not the best, so I thought nothing of it. Then, last weekend while at the the weather service during SKYWARN Recognition Day, another ham who was there gave me the news that he'd passed away "a year or two ago", which shocked me. I figured someone would have told me. I guess I got that far out of the loop to get that bit of info...

He was a pioneer in SKYWARN getting the recognition it deserved with regards to the contribution of ham radio and how it could benefit the weather service here in East Tennessee. He was dedicated to both the hams and the meteorologists and these days I think few hams here truly realize or appreciate what he brought to the table.

He was not one to mince words with you, and would often tell you exactly what he thought. If you were wasting precious time asking him questions irrelevant to the weather situation, he had no reservations about letting you know it. Being diplomatic was not always in his repertoire, but then again, as he often told me, SKYWARN nets are not the time to win friends and influence people. 

I for one have missed his dedication, often being at the weather service pretty much 24/7, sometimes struggling with the health problems that eventually drove him back home to Michigan. While his presence has been replaced, he will not be forgotten by those of us who remember the times prior to WX4MRX being on the air. Ham radio has made weather spotting in this area more complete and has helped to bridge a needed gap in what the radar "sees" and what is on the ground. Rocky was a crucial part of that in its infancy. He will be missed.

Hearing Voices: 9/11 and the Ham Radio Renaissance

As the world remembers and pays tribute to the nearly 3000 victims of the September 11 terrorists attacks a decade ago, I thought I would reference this article from 2003 on how 9/11 brought a "renaissance" to ham radio:

...Sept. 11, 2001, marked a quiet renaissance in the world of amateur radio, after years of declining membership and relative obscurity. Over the past couple of decades, amateur radio operators have witnessed their beloved pastime lose much of its luster. In the early part of the 20th century, hams, as amateur radio operators are also known, were a rogue band of technology buffs who were quick to pick up on Guglielmo Marconi's experiments with then-new wireless technology. They for the most part defied government regulation of the airwaves until World War I, when the U.S. Navy shut down all non-military radio operations.

The full article can be found here.

6500

That's the number of cell towers that lost power or were damaged during Hurricane Irene.  44% of cell towers in Vermont alone were knocked out.

210,000 wired customers were out of service as of Monday afternoon, and 2 TV stations and 10 radio stations were also knocked off the air.

Meanwhile, ham radio's still chugging along for many in the northeast. Thoughts of amateur radio's decline and "ancient" form of communications continues to shine through despite the conveniences of modern technology, which isn't convenient when a natural disaster such as Hurricane Irene takes out the resources needed to communicate.

Oklahoma ham loses radio equipment, home to wildfire

Harold Lazear (K5KLM) of Terlton, OK saw the flames coming and hopped on the roof of his home with a hose to try and do whatever he could to fight the inferno from taking his home and its treasure trove of ham equipment he'd collected over the years.

In the end, the fire won the battle.

The flames approached so fast that when Lazear realized he was not going to be able to hold off the fire, he only had time to jump in his pickup and leave without collecting any radio equipment. It all burned to the ground in 10 minutes.

After building up a collection over the years as a storm spotter and Red Cross volunteer, he now finds himself a recipient of aid from the agency he dedicated his volunteer time towards.

People who wish to donate may do so with a credit card at the Red Cross website, tulsaworld.com/okredcross, or by calling 918-831-1170. Checks can be mailed to American Red Cross-Tulsa Area Chapter, Dept. 995, Tulsa, OK 74182. Make checks payable to American Red Cross-Tulsa Area Chapter.

Yaesu factory damaged from earthquake

My favorite ham radio brand Yaesu (I own 6 of them) has suffered some damage to its factory in Fukushima, Japan.

Although the damage from the earthquake was minimal, the plant is reducing operations for at least 2 weeks in order repair the damage and get operations back to normal.

Vertex Standard CEO Jim Hasegawa issued a statement saying that while all factory workers at the Fukushima plant were accounted for, the company has been unable to contact many of their vendors located along the Japanese coastline hammered by the powereful tsunami last Friday.

The Vertex Standard plant is about 60 km inland from the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant currently struggling to prevent a radioactive meltdown.

Boy Scouts rescued using ham radio

Sometimes a test of your emergency preparedness turns into a real-life emergency situation.

Such was the case with some boy scouts in Arizona who needed rescue after becoming lost while on a project to climb different peaks of the Pine Mountain Wilderness and signal one another with mirrors.

At some point during the expedition the team became stranded and one of the scouts fell ill as their water supply ran low. They relayed their predicament via ham radio to a Prescott resident who then called authorities.

After their rescue, none needed hospitalization.

It's good to see ham radio still has a purpose "when all else fails"!

Why call for "emergency traffic"?

There are all sorts of nets on local repeaters, from SKYWARN nets to formal traffic nets to roundtable BS sessions.

I've called all sorts of nets since I got my ticket. One of the first net's I ever called was a technical net on English Mountain's 146.730 repeater in the mid-90s. From there I got to calling some of the nets on the Radio Amateur Club of Knoxville's (RACK) repeater, then I was calling nets for the local ARES/RACES group, then for yet another now-defunct radio club (a midnight "night owl net"), and all of this was at the same time!!! And then I began calling nets for SKYWARN.

One thing was always constant, with the exception of the SKYWARN nets, and that was all the other nets I was calling had the call for emergency traffic at the beginning of the net (also known as the preamble).

For example, this would be the beginning of a preamble used for a typical net on any given repeater in the area:

Calling the (NET NAME) net.
Calling the (NET NAME) net.
This is (YOUR NAME) in (LOCATION) and I'll be the net control for tonight's net.
This net meets every (DAY OF WEEK) at (TIME) on the (REPEATER NAME/FREQUENCY).
If there is any emergency traffic for the net at this time, please call net control.

Now, this is going to sound like me being a grammar nazi, but over the last few years I began to ponder the need for asking for emergency traffic. I mean, seriously, if there's an emergency, who's going to wait around until it's asked for? And when is an emergency ever scheduled for that particular time of the net???

And if there was a bona fide emergency, who's going to tell them "wait until emergency traffic is called for!"?

Again, seriously, if there's a legitimate emergency, you stop what you're doing (unless you're already calling an emergency net) and take that traffic first priority.

If I were still calling non-emergency nets (or really any nets for that matter, as I haven't called a SKYWARN net in any official capacity in about 4 years) I would say this for my preamble:

Calling the (NET NAME) net.
This is (YOUR NAME) in (LOCATION) and I'll be the net control for tonight's net.
This net meets every (DAY OF WEEK) at (TIME) on the (REPEATER NAME/FREQUENCY).
If there is any emergency traffic during this net, please alert the net control with your callsign and announce the word "Break" twice, at which time all net activity will be suspended in order to handle the emergency traffic.

That should suffice, don't you think?

You never know who's listening...

Last Saturday night, before this whole brouhaha with K8JSM stirred up a hornet's nest, I did something I wasn't sure I'd ever be doing again - participate in a SKYWARN net.

My friend Jason was recently appointed the coordinator for the area and this was to be his first real test in that role. He was used to it, though, since he and I would team up with a couple of others and run the nets years ago. When a new coordinator was named, all he would do is call Jason or another friend of mine, Tom, and get them to run the nets. So they were used to the pressure. I decided to listen in and help, because that's what friends do for one another...

The weather system that moved through had already killed 10 people in Mississippi and was bearing down on East Tennessee.

The National Weather Service (NWS) had been sending out messages warning people about the severity of the system 48 hours beforehand. The last time I recall the NWS being that cautious was when a tornado tore through Mossy Grove several years before. However, by the time it arrived around midnight Saturday night/Sunday morning, it lost most of its energy and was scattered storms.

It still managed to put an E-F2 tornado in Greenback, just southeast of where I live.

As that tornado was touching down, one local TV station was on the air broadcasting the storm's approach to Knoxville.

As I tuned in to the net, several people were checking in and reporting the usual - heavy winds, lotsa lightning, nothing happening, my bunions are killing me...the typical stuff we'd normally get.

But then, one ham who was doing an overnight paper route called in to report he was in contact with another delivery person who "saw a tornado" in Greenback.

In the past, I usually shunned this type of 3rd party reporting. I recall one such net where we spent 15 minutes scrambling to get confirmation because someone heard on a police scanner that the fire department was reporting a tornado down in Anderson County near Oak Ridge, and it set off a panic. That report ended up being discounted, but it tied up our net as we struggled to get some sort of visual confirmation from those listening, many of whom ran to their police scanners to listen for the report from the fire department.

But something was different about this report. I knew the guy reporting it and he wouldn't just throw a report out like this without some sort of credible evidence (he and Jason are close friends and I'm sure Jason lectured him about it a dozen times over). Dwight (the ham reporting) made sure to preface his report and said "I'm getting this '3rd party', but another driver just told me he saw a tornado in the Greenback community."

So, I decided I was going to run upstairs into the living room and see what the meteorologists were reporting on TV.

No sooner than I step out of the radio room do I hear one of the two meteorologists on TV exclaim: "And we've just received CONFIRMATION of a tornado in Greenback, this is by AMATEUR RADIO..."

I about had a heart attack.

My first reaction was "what weather net are they listening to?" and I scrambled back to the radio to start scanning for other nets (none were taking place other than in northern Georgia and middle Tennessee) and I quickly grabbed the mic and told Jason to "call me immediately" so that I could let him know the TV station was listening, and possibly erroneously reporting a touchdown. No sooner did I un-key the mic when another ham piped in that the TV station was listening and reporting the tornado touching down.

Well now that the cat was out of the bag, we (as in all of us on the net) had to spend 5+ minutes doing damage control, stating repeatedly that the report was 3rd party, unconfirmed, and that we were working to get visual sighting of damage or of the tornado.

Suddenly other hams start reporting that they're getting reports of ambulance and fire dispatches to homes damaged by tornados and other emergencies. The hams were using specific addresses, and that was always a big no-no when I was calling the nets.

Eventually, the TV station corrected their report, but did mention reports of emergency dispatches were being sent to the same addresses we were hearing, indicating something happened out in Greenback.

Eventually, it came to pass that there was indeed a tornado in Greenback, but the rule of thumb we always employed was not to confirm what we ourselves didn't see.

Dwight didn't do anything wrong, because he did preface that he was getting the information 3rd-hand. However, the TV station was either rushing to get the story out on the air or was not entirely hearing the report by Dwight, and assumed that the tornado was confirmed.

Technically speaking, we couldn't confirm if a tornado did touchdown (that's the NWS's job when they do damage surveys after the fact) but the last thing I want to see is SKYWARN in East Tennessee getting discredited because we're hollering "TORNADO!" when in fact it's not been confirmed, or just something we hear elsewhere.

It's been a couple years since I was involved in SKYWARN. It's gonna take a little bit of time to get used to things again. Getting things back on track is going to have to be priority one, but getting the media on track with what we do is apparently another priority entirely.