[HamWAN PSDR] VOTE: Power backup expansion project

[Stephen Kangas]

Bart, 

That’s interesting that one of the UPS units is installed currently at the Rattlesnake site.  I can attest to the valued performance of that, as when that widespread power outage occurred, the Rattlesnake DMR repeater down during the outage, yet HamWan continued to be operational at that same site.  I can guess that the UPS and emergency generator system at that SECAST shack did not work, and yet your UPS did.  I was able to use HamWan for Winlink email communications with members of our North Bend ARES Team, demonstrating the value and resiliency of that HamWan site.  It’s good that you’re aiming to replicate that reliability to other HamWan sites.

 

73 de Stephen W9SK (North Bend)

 

 

From: PSDR <psdr-bounces at hamwan.org> On Behalf Of Bart Kus
Sent: Friday, February 05, 2021 12:42 PM
To: Puget Sound Data Ring <psdr at hamwan.org>
Subject: [HamWAN PSDR] VOTE: Power backup expansion project

 

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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