[HamWAN PSDR] VOTE: Power backup expansion project

[Bart Kus]

Hello,

During the recent wind storm event in January, HamWAN lost utility power 
to some sites.  This triggered network outages that affected users and 
repeaters that relied on those sites.  It was far from our finest hour.  
"When all else fails", HamWAN should not be the first in line.  I'd like 
for 2021 to be a year we focus on reliability. Having a reliable power 
system at every site seems like a good place to start that journey.  In 
each of the power failures in January, a generator system failed to 
activate.  In these cases, we need at least 24 hours to mount a response 
in fixing generators.  This means our battery backup systems should be 
sized for at least 24 hours of runtime.  I have acquired a couple UPSes 
that can achieve this. They are composed of the main UPS:

https://www.apc.com/shop/us/en/products/APC-Smart-UPS-XL-Modular-3000VA-120V-Rackmount-Tower/P-SUM3000RMXL2U

And one external (and chainable!) battery expansion module:

https://www.apc.com/shop/us/en/products/APC-Smart-UPS-XL-Modular-48V-Extended-Run-Battery-Pack/P-SUM48RMXLBP2U

They also feature an AP9631 network interface module in each UPS, so we 
can monitor and control the power system.  As you can see, each UPS 
costs about $3600 new, so the two I acquired would be $7,200 new.  
However, I managed to find used units and purchased brand new batteries 
for them. *The total cost for these two systems is $963.71.*  One of 
them is deployed at Rattlesnake ("Snoqualmie shack") already:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/HTomAzJUnrjuJ3bw8

If we ever want to expand the battery capacity of these, we can simply 
plug in more battery modules.

I'm hoping to deploy the 2nd system in the other building on Rattlesnake 
("DNR shack"), but that hasn't happened yet.

--Bart

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