When setting up a solar powered field station there are 5 key components you need to make the system work. Here is the station WaveTalkers put together.
- Solar Panels: collects light energy from the sun and converts it to DC electrical power. We use PowerFilm Solar 60W foldable panels for this.
- Solar Charge Controller: takes the DC Electrical Power from the solar panels and regulates the charging of your battery and also distributes power to your radio. We use the BuddiPole PowerMini + for this.
- Battery: stores the energy collected from the sun and delivers that power to your radio either directly or through the solar charge controller. For this we use LiFePO4 batteries from Bioenno Power. For this station we used a 12Ah LiFePO4.
- Radio: A portable low power radio allows for efficient power utilization and effective communications. Here we used the Icom IC-705 QRP radio that transmits at 5W using the internal battery, and 10W when connected to the solar power system.
- Antenna: Radio communications are all about the effectiveness of the antenna system. Here we used the ultra compact BuddiPole BuddiStick Pro.
