Oct 20, 2026 – “Importance of Emergency Power”

Good evening. This is W1UT and tonight’s topic will be on the “Importance of Emergency Power.”

Everyone has at some point experienced a time when the power has gone out. This can happen at any time and is probably more concerning during the winter months when it is cold outside. If the outage is long and you have no idea when power may be restored, what do you do?

Having a means to provide emergency power during utility outages can be very helpful – especially if the outage is lengthy. The food in your fridge or freezer may go bad. Having some means of providing lighting during the night time hours is also important. For us ham operators having an emergency source of power for your radio is also important. A VHF or UHF radio can be very helpful during local emergencies and if the intertie system is working across the state.

If you have HF capability you can easily contact other hams far away from local or regional emergencies. Another benefit of having HF capability and emergency power is helping others who may impacted by their own emergencies and passing traffic. This has happened to me during the earthquake in San Francisco in 1989 and during the earthquake in Mexico city many years ago.

Let's examine a few ways to provide emergency power in case of a power outage.

One of the first, if not most convenient sources of emergency or backup electrical power is a 12V battery. Some handheld radios do not have a 12V jack, so this may be a problem. When people ask what sort of handheld radio to buy, I often recommend one with a 12V external power jack. Otherwise at least have several extra fully charged battery packs. Mobile or base station radios usually require an external power supply for power, so you can simply reconnect your radio to the backup battery.

There are certainly other emergency power options. If you have a generator this can also be a source of emergency power. Personally I find gasoline powered generators a pain to use as most people who have them don’t keep them properly serviced. Also it has be operated outside which is noisy and attracts neighbors. Also having sufficient fuel for your generator can become a problem. Never run your generator in your garage. Also multiple extension cords will be needed to get the power from your generator into your home. When I lived in Vermont I installed a transfer switch so that any power from the generator cannot flow back into the grid and kill line men working on restoring power. The advantage of a transfer switch at your breaker panel allows you to selectively provide power anywhere in the house.

Next let’s discuss another emergency power source called a battery powered generator. These are portable devices that have large battery storage, usually LiPo batteries. Internally is an inverter which converts the DC battery power to AC power. These are handy devices as there is no noise, no required gas, and they can be recharged when grid power is back on or by solar panels. I have one of these devices and it is capable of running all of my shack, including an amplifier and other important equipment in the house.

Another power standby power source is solar along with a charge controller. A 100W solar panel can be used to charge a 100 aH battery to keep your radio equipment running for lengthy outages. This assumes you can get sufficient daylight with bright sunlight.

There are other more unusual power backup options such as wind mills, water power or even bicycle power. I do not consider these options appropriate for most people.

Finally having emergency power available means that you are prepared. For many years I only operated my equipment off a 12V lead acid battery that I kept trickle charged. Thus I was always ready for an emergency at least for the shack.

That is all for this week. I will turn the time back to net control from W1UT.