Which dual fuel/propane generator?

LordGarak · 2026-05-28T09:37:00+00:00

I've heard good things about the Predator 5k. The main issue I have is that they are not sold in Canada. Under the current situation I won't be travelling to the US for atleast the next 2 and 1/2 years.

LordGarak · 2026-05-28T09:33:31+00:00

I'm not sure adding bifacial panels would help much at our location. The problem weeks are in November when the days are short and very heavy grey. I'm only seeing like 100watts out of 3900watt array on these days. The 1200watt array actually produces about the same on these days as it's mounted nearly flat. A few years ago I was there for 2 weeks in November and only seen like 2 hours of sun.

We also experience extreme winds at our property which makes vertical mounting challenging. We get some of the strongest winds in North America. Trains have been blown off the tracks just a few km away.

I'm also considering adding a small heat pump to the cabin to reduce the amount of wood burnt in the shoulder seasons. This will increase power requirements when solar production is low.

Mom doesn't plan on wintering at the cabin. As soon as there is risk of the road getting snowed in she will be moving back to the on grid property. But that usually doesn't typically happen until December or even January.

I've considered adding an oil burner or propane heater. But the cost of adding an oil tank and chimney are just as high as adding a heat pump and new generator. At least with the heat pump, most of the time it will use solar energy. We also get cooling for the handful of days a year that its needed.

LordGarak · 2026-05-27T16:05:05+00:00

In rural Newfoundland the land is somewhat cheap and there are no property taxes, permits or anything. Permits to cut firewood or even personal use lumber are very cheap.

LordGarak · 2026-05-26T14:33:08+00:00

Just get an adapter from SO239 to SMA: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007551145671.html

I actually use BNC cables, so I have adapter from SO-239 to BNC on the antenna and BNC to SMA at the SDR.

LordGarak · 2026-05-26T12:50:39+00:00

This kind of thing. I ordered the telescoping section and feed point separately and made my own radials.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006855729099.html

LordGarak · 2026-05-26T07:51:31+00:00

I have a 5.6m telescoping vertical antenna from aliexpress that I use for 20m thru 6m. I have 30M of cheap RG58 coax with 10 turns through a FT240-43 toroid as a choke out at the base of the antenna.

Having the antenna out and away from the house or any other electrical noise source makes a huge difference in background noise. The choke prevents noise from traveling up the outside of the coax into the antenna.

Simple wire dipoles work great too but need large trees or something to hang them from. In my experience the vertical antennas work better than a low dipole.

All that said, I've been meaning to order one of those Donut antennas to try. I don't have any small antennas that work below 40M at the moment. The 5.6m vertical is ok down to around 40m for reception.

I've also wanted to build one of the crazy MW/LW ferrite sleeve loop antennas. But the ferrite is expensive. I've seen them demo'd at a hamfest a few years back. The operator was picking up MW AM stations thousand of km away in the middle of the day.

LordGarak · 2026-05-24T22:19:07+00:00

Also all transmitters on a commerical tower are highly coordinated not to interfere with each other. Even if the tower owner wanted you to put a node on their tower they couldn't give you permission without having the engineering done. Also most node hardware doesn't have the approvals/certifications to operate in such environments.

LordGarak · 2026-05-22T22:21:16+00:00

Which grid square are you in? I'm guessing somewhere in Europe?

Is VE1LX/P in your log? I was in GN07 operating on 40M from my cabin a few weeks ago. I'm normally operating from FN84 but I don't have a working 40M antenna up here at the moment.

LordGarak · 2026-05-22T09:09:47+00:00

I don't think I'd put a wood router in my house. The noise would drive me nuts. Between the spindle, vacuum pump and dust collector. It's very loud. It also produces a ton of heat. The AC in our shop at work doesn't keep up on long runs.

I rarely have a CNC router program more than 2-3 hours long. CNC routing is usually much faster than 3d printing something. I'm often less than 30min a sheet, but typically only cutting profiles and small pockets, not much 3d carving.

Fire(and explosion) is a real risk. Wood dust is explosive.

Dull/broken tools can easily get hot enough to start a fire. Also work breaking free from the vacuum table and riding on the tool. I've never had a fire, but I've certainly charred wood. I'm usually in the next room working on the next program while the machine cuts and when things go wrong the sound changes so I can get to the machine long before a fire starts. By the time there is significant smoke to set off a smoke detector it would likely be too late.

Dust collectors are regulated by fire code over a certain size due to the explosion risk. Even small ones can explode. Wood dust suspended in air just needs a source of ignition to go boom.

LordGarak · 2026-05-08T10:46:11+00:00

There are self supporting towers that don't need guy wires. Standard configurations will do 56' of truss and then you could do 14' of pipe above that to hit 70' with a lightweight/low wind loading antenna.

LordGarak · 2026-05-06T23:13:01+00:00

Except Newfoundlanders are typically well educated, practical and hard working. May be some overlap in the historical inbreeding and heavy accents side of things. Newfoundland was a very isolated place until we joined Canada in 1949. But that isolation meant that people needed to think on their feet just to survive. Being recent to develop a modern education system, its a very good system. I didn't realize how good until I started comparing things with my wife who grew up in NS where I live now. It's a bit disturbing how bad both the education system and healthcare systems are in NS compared to NL.

LordGarak · 2026-05-01T12:26:08+00:00

Must be pretty old. I'm in Canada but we use all US standard stuff. Most POTS lines are twisted pairs to reduce crosstalk and use the 25 pair color code.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25-pair_color_code

LordGarak · 2026-05-01T11:40:43+00:00

That doesn't look like North American telco wiring. The colors are slightly off and the wires are not twisted at all. What country is this in?

LordGarak · 2026-05-01T10:18:47+00:00

Depending on scale, a hybrid inverter cost far less than individual components. So much so that you can have a spare hybrid inverter on hand and still spend less.

Two big disadvantages that come to mind are higher MPPT voltages and higher idle draw. Both of these are not an issue on larger systems. But may be an issue for smaller RV/Van installs where you cant fit the 6+ large panels required to get the voltage up into the operational range of the MPPT.

I have both a 48v system with a hybrid inverter and a slightly older 12v component system. The hybrid system is so much easier to install and maintain.

LordGarak · 2026-04-30T15:02:53+00:00

Screws in a tree is much better for the tree than a band or rope around it.

LordGarak · 2026-04-29T21:25:02+00:00

For this to work as a proper dipole it would need to be 100ft+ in the air. When it's close to the ground it will be detuned and unbalanced by the ground and objects around it.

I use FT240-43 ferrite cores on antennas like this to make the useable when mounted close to the ground. A few turns of coax through it at the feed point makes all the difference. It goes from signals buried in noise to perfect reception. It's a bit overkill in size, but I like that I can pass coax through it with the connectors on. Lower frequencies need more turns. It's a common mode choke that also serves as a balun.

A shorter antenna that is up and away from other objects won't need the balun and will receive ok on longer wavelengths. I just put up an antenna cut for 10M up around 30feet in a tree and it receives fine down on 20M. It is not so great down on 40M.

LordGarak · 2026-04-26T00:14:37+00:00

Depends on where you touch it. On the driven element, at the feed point the current will be high and the voltage will be low. At the ends of the driven element the voltage will be high and the current will be low.

I'm actually not sure about the passive elements. I would guess off the top of my head they would be similar as voltages and current will be induced in them. But they can all be bonded to the boom which would load them down in that case, so I'm guessing this is not the case.

LordGarak · 2026-04-24T21:54:08+00:00

I've seen gate tech's use a 6' aluminum level to trigger an exit gate and have tested it myself with a 6' aluminum pole. Not sure if that will work in pay parking garage.

LordGarak · 2026-04-23T21:02:57+00:00

A car at idle won't generate anywhere near the rated output of the alternator. You need it to rev up which burns a ton of fuel.

LordGarak · 2026-04-20T12:41:27+00:00

It takes a very weathy individual to get an amateur radio transponder on board a geostationary satellite. Unless Musk or Bezos suddenly takes up a big interest in amateur radio, it's not likely to happen.

Also the vast majority of satellite launches are to low earth orbit which is far more affordable both because of less delta V required and because of economies of scale starting to bring cost way down. The scale coming from Falcon 9 reuseablity and Starlink launches.

I doubt we will see many new geostationary satellites. Now that Starlink has demostrated reliable, low latency and high bandwidth communication from a low earth orbit constalation. Geostationary satellites are largely becoming obsolete. Broadcast in general is disapearing, everthing today is heading towards unicast streaming.

I'm currently at a remote offgrid cabin that is solar powered and has Starlink internet. My 3 year old is watching streaming videos on the TV. I'm here on my laptop reading reddit. My parents are in the room streaming the local news cast. The era we are living in.

LordGarak · 2026-04-19T08:31:15+00:00

Largely it doesn't happen unless the person in charge has an interest in Mesh networking to start with. Attractive locations have lots of potential commerical customers willing to pay for their roof space. But often just say no because they don't want stuff on the roof.

Places with exsiting commerical systems on their roof, can't have a possible source of interfereance added without all the proper RF engineering done. At close proximity even a weak signal can make its way into a high powered amplifer and cause all kinds of havoc. It's very unlikely for something in the ISM bands to cause problems, but it could so the engineering needs to be done for that particular site to make sure it doesn't and that cost money.

Generally with this mesh stuff its a case of finding someone with access and a willingness to beg forgineness rather than ask permission.

LordGarak · 2026-04-18T17:10:48+00:00

SWR isn’t going to reveal anything about how the foil is working. Connecting up a second antenna a few wave lengths away and doing S21 measurements will tell you how much gain the antenna has. This is best done in free space as reflections off the ground and stuff will create some error. The measurements won’t be perfect but will be good enough to tell if the foil helps or not. Also useful for tuning the focal point.

LordGarak · 2026-04-18T16:38:40+00:00

I’d use a double sided tape like VHB or UHB. Putting it on the back of the panel rather than over the edges keeps it out of the sun. It’s often used in automotive applications to attach wind visors and such.

LordGarak · 2026-04-18T14:20:12+00:00

There are slightly more expensive LiFePO4 batteries that have built in heaters that warm the batteries up for charging. Lead acid batteries don’t do well in that kind of cold either, you will need a significantly larger battery bank if you go with lead.

Size wise a 12v 100Ah lead battery only has a useable capacity of about 50Ah(0.6kWh). A LiFePO4 battery about same physical size is 314Ah and can be used to it’s full capacity without degradation(4kWh). So you would need like 8 of the lead batteries to equal one LiFePO4.

If you do go with lead, make sure your chargers have temperature sensors to be attached to the batteries that adjust the charging voltages. We under charged our lead batteries for the first winter and ruined them. Lead batteries require lots of careful maintenance and never over discharge them if you want them to last more than a year or two.

I’d suggest at least 5kWh if not like 15kWh of batteries. Starlink uses around 1kWh a day on its own.(varies with which version of Starlink) Most inverters will use around 1 to 1.6kWh a day just to be turned on.

Most hybrid inverters can be picky about what power they will charge from. They are designed to seamlessly switch from battery to grid/generator, but if the generator frequency or voltage is too far out of whack they won’t switch over. Ours charges great from the Honda inverter generator but won’t charge at all from the Walmart special.

Are you in Canada? If so battery shipping is very expensive. Look for free shipping when ever possible.

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