May 5, 2026 – Building a Station on Emergency Power

Good evening. This is W1UT and tonight’s training is about “Building a Station on Emergency Power.”

In emergencies one of the first utilities to fail is electrical power. You all know how important AC power is in our modern lives. Just about everything we all rely on runs on commercial power. When the power and cell towers fail people want to know how their families are doing. As you all know communications during emergencies is extremely important. This is why for many years amateur radio operators have worked on building a station capable of operating on emergency power rather than relying on the grid. This is also why many of the Utah Intertie system of repeaters are designed to operate during emergencies when grid power or other means of communications fail.

I will cover just a few ways to operate your radio equipment on emergency power. One of the first, if not most convenient sources of emergency or backup electrical power is a battery or several batteries. These days you can purchase battery generators capable of supplying large amounts of power for your home. These generators can be can be kept charged by solar panels or prior to an emergency using commercial power. This type of emergency power tends to be rather expensive but is much safer than using a gas powered electrical generator.

One of the simplest emergency power sources for your ham shack is a simple 12V battery of sufficient capacity for your needs. I use a Lithium Ion Phosphate 100 aH battery to power my shack capable of powering my HF and VHF/UHF radios. This battery can also be recharged using a 100W, or greater, solar panel. These days I would consider using a LiPo battery versus a Lead Acid battery. I still have a lead acid battery as a backup, LiPO batteries are much lighter and have more usable capacity.

Another reliable but temporary power source is a gasoline generator. Battery power generators are also capable of providing lots of AC power can also run freezers, fridges, lights and other appliances – as well as your shack. So you need to decide what power needs you have. However, just like generators can run out of fuel, battery generators will eventually need to be recharged. Gas generators must be run outside as their carbon monoxide gases can kill you. They are also noisy and will attract neighbors. Battery generators are quiet and can be used indoors.

Yet another popular standby power source is solar. As long as the Sun's out, even when it's cloudy, a solar panel can deliver electrical power to charge your battery and then use the battery to run your radio and other equipment. Because solar radiation is not constant, the solar panel power will rise and fall and needs to be regulated and stored for it to be useful as an emergency power source. Your solar setup will need both a charge controller and a battery to even out the flow of power. There are other unusual emergency power backup possibilities including wind and maybe even a water powered generator.

I recommend if you want to build a backup electrical power station that you hook it up in such a way that it will run your station as the normal mode of operation. This will force you to make sure your batteries are always charged. In my station this is the normal mode of operation.

Finally, handheld radios normally run off battery power. Always have a spare battery fully charged should a power outage happen. You never know how long the power may be off.