W3SWL-10 Central PA Gateway on 145.090 now has UPS
An APC 1050VA UPS has been installed on the W3SWL-10 Winlink node. For now, just the control computer is running on the UPS. Hopefully this will smooth out any short power interruptions that have caused the computer to go down in the past.
We will test how long the computer can remain up on the APC battery backup supply. I am guessing at least an hour.
PowerChute software has been installed on the node computer, and that should gracefully shut down the computer in the event of longer-term power outages.
Longer-term plans are to put the 2m radio onto the backup power supply so that the node is available for use during power interruptions. This will likely shorten the time it can remain operating in the event of longer power outages, however. There are no plans as of yet to put the radio on a more permanent DC backup (battery or solar). We may do this in the future.
We also hope to put the internet modem and wifi router on battery backup someday so that, even if the power is out, messages can still be sent out over the internet as long as the cable internet service remains in operation.
Long-term I would like to install RMS Relay software to provide a local message storage buffer for incoming messages from RMS Packet or RMS Trimode with forwarding to a CMS when connectivity returns.
But, for now, we have an APC UPS battery backup on the node computer!
73,
Brett W3SWL
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