Question about Chicago Electric Generator
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From: Alex on 11 Sep 2008 10:08 Hi Everyone, I'm looking at picking up a Chicago Electric Generator Model# 97906 from Harbor Freight to run a few things around the hose incase of a power outage, but I was wondering about the 12V Battery Charging Socket. Could I run any 12-volt item, specifically a 2m amateur radio, from this, or is it designed specifically for charging a battery and nothing else? I've read through the manual online - http://www.harborfreight.com/manuals/97000-97999/97906.pdf - and it just mentions using it for a battery ... but it'd be nice to use this for my radio as well. Just checking... Thanks, Alex
From: Bert Hyman on 11 Sep 2008 10:26 samalex(a)gmail.com (Alex) wrote in news:8b5dd2a8-4c2e-427e-b09a-64e3e59fb233(a)z72g2000hsb.googlegroups.com: > Could I run any 12-volt item, specifically a 2m amateur > radio, from this, Probably not. Since it's explicitly described as being a battery charge circuit, it's unlikely that the voltage regulation would be particulary good, especially when your rig is in receive mode drawing little current. The amount of noise on the DC would probably be pretty bad too. On the other hand, running your rig from a battery which you charge from the generator (with appropriate filters and charge and voltage control circuitry) wouldn't be a bad idea. With the emphasis on emergency preparedness in the past few years, QST's been full of articles describing how to do this, and ARRL even has a book, "Emergency Power for Radio Communications", covering the subject. -- Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN | bert(a)iphouse.com
From: dicko on 11 Sep 2008 12:19 I would think that as long as you had a car battery connected, in addition to your radio, it'd work OK. The battery acts as a BFC, soaking up transients and boosting sags. If you really want to go overboard, I'd try an Optima yellow top deep discharge gel battery. -dickm On Thu, 11 Sep 2008 07:08:19 -0700 (PDT), Alex <samalex(a)gmail.com> wrote: >Hi Everyone, > >I'm looking at picking up a Chicago Electric Generator Model# 97906 >from Harbor Freight to run a few things around the hose incase of a >power outage, but I was wondering about the 12V Battery Charging >Socket. Could I run any 12-volt item, specifically a 2m amateur >radio, from this, or is it designed specifically for charging a >battery and nothing else? I've read through the manual online - >http://www.harborfreight.com/manuals/97000-97999/97906.pdf - and it >just mentions using it for a battery ... but it'd be nice to use this >for my radio as well. > >Just checking... > >Thanks, > >Alex
From: GregS on 11 Sep 2008 12:38 In article <8b5dd2a8-4c2e-427e-b09a-64e3e59fb233(a)z72g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>, Alex <samalex(a)gmail.com> wrote: >Hi Everyone, > >I'm looking at picking up a Chicago Electric Generator Model# 97906 >from Harbor Freight to run a few things around the hose incase of a >power outage, but I was wondering about the 12V Battery Charging >Socket. Could I run any 12-volt item, specifically a 2m amateur >radio, from this, or is it designed specifically for charging a >battery and nothing else? I've read through the manual online - >http://www.harborfreight.com/manuals/97000-97999/97906.pdf - and it >just mentions using it for a battery ... but it'd be nice to use this >for my radio as well. > >Just checking... > >Thanks, > >Alex It would be totally 0-14 volts 10 volts average, unless its three phase. Use a battery in parallel. greg
From: WDS on 11 Sep 2008 15:21
On Sep 11, 9:08 am, Alex <sama...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Just checking... What everyone else said. The output from most home generators is electrically pretty noisy. If I hook my PC up to my generator it runs fine but when I stick in a UPS in between them (which I always do) I have to turn off active line monitoring as it is going off almost continuously. |