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11600	16480	Welcome to my DEF CON Ham Radio Village talk on my rover van.
16680	21740	My name is Pete Koback and my call sign is Kilo Zero. Bravo Alpha Kilo.
21800	27760	I want to say first that I'm really happy to be here at DEF CON, even virtually,
27760	31480	because I spent 17 years in web application security,
31480	35280	and although I attended quite a few security conferences in that time,
35280	40460	I never did get to DEF CON, so I'm glad I'm here now, and I'm glad you're here with me.
43720	47060	I first got licensed relatively recently,
47060	52820	after waiting 40 years when I first had an interest in ham radio as a teenager,
52820	57040	but didn't have money, and then didn't have time with a family and career.
57200	63200	And I had been fascinated by reading about the activity of roving,
63760	70760	either activating counties and state QSO parties, or grids and VHF contests.
71540	76900	And my first effort was in 2014 in the Pennsylvania QSO party, my home state,
76900	81020	and I won the category, mostly because there wasn't much competition in the category,
81020	85760	but still, I had a lot of fun doing it, and it wasn't bad to win either.
85760	94560	So, a kind of a career was started there in roving and contests.
98350	101170	When I first started, I used the family minivan,
101170	107450	and on the left here you can see four low VHF bands on a rotator in the back of the van.
107450	113650	And here is the HF antenna I started with, which was an elevated ground plane.
113690	116130	I since replaced that with a screwdriver antenna,
116130	119690	because although this antenna works well, it takes too long to set up.
123950	126510	Although I had fun operating the family minivan,
126510	131850	it was a pain in the neck to have to tear it down each time after I'm done,
131850	133470	and then build it out the next time.
133470	136050	Also, I couldn't drill holes, so I was thinking,
136050	138930	gee, it sure would be nice to have a dedicated vehicle.
142940	146620	The ultimate such vehicle would be electronic news gathering.
146920	150360	It would have a pneumatic mask, power, and racks,
150360	153480	and it would be a perfect base for a VHF ham rover.
153480	158140	I looked every so often, not really very seriously.
158140	160380	They always seemed to be offered far away,
160380	165280	and I wasn't really looking in any kind of systematic way.
170010	175590	However, in the summer of 2016, my buddy Rob found the TV van that was only two hours away.
175630	177150	So we went up there.
178070	182330	Since he's a gearhead, he gave it a mechanical thumbs up.
182350	184790	We saw that the generated pneumatic mask worked,
184790	188250	and after going away for a couple weeks and thinking about it,
188250	193290	I purchased it and paid for it, in effect, by delaying my retirement.
198120	200320	Here's a list of the features in the van.
200320	206320	I won't go through these step-by-step, but a pneumatic mask, power generators,
207840	211840	a powerful engine because it's quite a heavy vehicle,
212460	214640	and a flat roof with a ladder.
214640	216240	That was meant for TV reporting.
216240	221520	That would make it easier to climb up there and install antennas that I needed.
224990	227910	Here's what the van looked like when it was on offer at the dealer.
227910	231870	You can see some pretty heavy antennas on the roof of the van
231870	236330	that would have to be removed for my own antennas to be installed.
238910	242570	And here's a look at the interior production area,
242570	247090	where you can see that they removed all their expensive equipment and left the cables behind.
250520	254200	I bought the van at the end of October of 2016,
254700	257300	registered it, replaced the batteries,
257300	261420	and something I didn't even think about was garaging it.
261420	264240	So I didn't have a garage tall enough for it,
264240	267340	so I threw a tarp over it, which didn't work all that well,
267340	269280	then certainly didn't look very good,
269280	272860	and didn't have any build progress that winter.
274300	279220	In the spring, I took down the antennas I could by disassembling it
279220	282580	and walking the antennas down the ladder,
282580	286240	but the front antenna for satellite was too heavy,
286240	292340	and another buddy of mine from a VHF club, Phil K3TOF,
292340	298920	helped me by taking it off with a pulley at his pole barn.
303620	308740	Ironically, the first radio that I had installed in the van was not a ham radio,
308740	316620	but was a combination radio, backup camera, and navigation device.
316620	319420	Also, I had a Bluetooth player for long drives,
319420	323160	which is not a small thing when you're doing a long drive by yourself.
327090	332250	One of my first bad surprises was in the spring after I bought it,
332250	336410	I found that the generator, the motor part started right up,
336410	339010	which is good, but there was no voltage I could find.
339810	342730	I was surprised by this, because we saw the meters on at the dealer,
342730	345290	and it ran the pneumatic mass, at least I thought so.
345290	351470	I finally discovered that the AC we saw at the dealer had come from the van engine,
351470	355110	and I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that I didn't even know it had that feature.
355110	358730	I guess it's good to have the feature, but bad that I didn't know about it.
358730	365290	So, the generator part of that gasoline gen set had to be rebuilt expensively, and it took quite a while.
369270	373570	At the same time, 2017 is my first year of retirement,
373570	377450	and I did a lot of operating because I had the freedom to do so,
377450	381770	and because I was operating, I didn't make much progress on the van.
381770	385470	Finally, at near the end of the year, I deconstructed the minivan Rover
385470	390030	in the hopes that I would have more time, or force myself at least to have more time,
390030	393910	to outfit the TV van.
397760	402260	The next winter, I found a garage for it that was relatively new,
402800	405680	and the problem was it was one hour drive each way,
405680	407820	but at least I had a place to keep it over the winter,
407820	411500	and could do some work inside during the winter months.
415710	420930	The first big project in the winter was to remove the cables that were left behind.
420930	424870	I did so by not cutting them, but removing them and putting them aside,
424870	429030	or wrapping them up here on the side and cleaning the whole van,
429030	434090	which had not seen much cleaning since it was built in 2001.
437280	441280	The first thing I ever built for the van was a shore power connection.
441280	447100	Here's a little cable with an adapter that was kind of unusual.
447100	450080	You would have thought it would be standard in the RV world.
450080	453820	It was not, so it was hard to find and surprisingly expensive,
453820	456940	but at least my first build was successful.
457000	461240	The first of many things I built for the van down the years.
465480	468540	Now in 2018, unfortunately, most progress halted
468540	473060	because of a major series of basement floods we had at home.
473060	477100	It took out my home station and forced me to spend a lot of time
477100	481780	fixing it up or preparing it to be fixed up and renewed again.
481820	485900	So very little progress was made on the TV van because of that.
491650	495930	2019, though, had quite a bit of progress in the van.
495930	500010	I won't go through this entire list, but one of the big features of that year
500010	503950	was operating in the Canadian National Parks on the Air program,
503950	510690	installing radios, the power systems I used during that operation,
510690	513750	and a microwave power shelf.
513750	519650	So in contrast to the previous year, I did make a lot of progress two years ago.
520210	524450	In this calendar year, though, the major theme,
524450	527710	including the very end of last year,
527710	531690	was mechanical problems with the engine,
531690	535390	in particular the serpentine belt in the engine.
535390	540050	So the van was out of commission for many weeks in two different events,
540050	544750	not allowing me to make progress in building or operating the van.
544750	547150	In between the events, I did go on what I called
547150	550070	Corona Roads to local parks and operated from parks,
550070	556390	since I could still be isolated from other people while operating inside the van.
557650	560390	And right at the moment, the station is down for upgrades,
560390	563530	but that's a good thing, and it'll be back on the air shortly.
567360	571600	Now I'd like to talk about power, which was most of my effort
571600	575680	of building the interior of the van so far.
577520	582600	So I started with surveying the
583320	586620	capabilities of the van as is. The van has three
586620	590880	5 kilowatt AC sources, a generator set that I talked about,
590880	595460	an origin that was power from the vehicle,
595460	598860	and the plug-in shore power. So the problem
598860	602820	with the generator set was that it was very loud
602820	607420	inside. Audio-wise, it was really loud and shaky,
607420	610540	and not only was it loud inside the van, if I was
610540	614660	anywhere where the public would be, like a park,
614660	618960	it would be really distracting and not a nice thing to subject
618960	623300	other people to. The origin is relatively quiet
623300	627080	because just the van engine is running, but RF-wise, it was
627080	630300	horribly, horribly noisy, so that was out.
631160	635000	Lastly, there's RF noise just from the van engine
635000	639120	even when the origin system wasn't on, so my overall conclusion
639120	643120	was that I needed batteries for doing weak signal radio. I couldn't
643120	646080	rely on any of the internal generating sources.
648120	652500	The DC power system included two
654300	656540	batteries wired in parallel
656540	660480	permanently, which was a shame because
660480	664480	it would have been nice if the auxiliary battery was switched in.
664480	668180	I noticed there was no protection for high current circuits, which
668180	672480	made some additions to the DC power system dangerous.
673780	676180	I did have available 320 amp
676180	680100	radio DC circuits, but that's really not enough
680100	684360	power to even have barefoot power, no less
684360	688200	amplifiers. The battery charger that they left behind that I
688200	692400	started trying to use was actually burned out, which is probably why they left it behind.
693000	696400	So my overall conclusion was that I also
696400	700260	needed a separate radio station DC power system. I couldn't take
700260	704520	much advantage of anything that was existing in the van for DC power.
709450	713390	So what were my power assumptions when I started?
714690	716390	I was going to use my
716390	720390	home station Flex 5000 SDR.
720890	724690	The thing about that series of Flex radios was that
724690	728430	the radio processing was done on a PC via
728430	732070	firewire. The laptop was out of the question because of
732550	736810	using less reliable connections. So I needed to use a rock-mounted
736810	740010	desktop class PC, and that meant
740010	744670	I needed AC power for that PC. So going through
744670	748610	this line of assumptions led me to the conclusion that the station
748610	752230	would be based on AC power and DC would come from conventional
752570	756450	power supplies just like you'd use at home. And I'd
756450	760630	use batteries and an inverter for AC power because, as I
760630	763850	said before, I couldn't rely on the internal generators.
768200	771220	I decided that the AC power
771220	774960	would be up to 3 kilowatts so I could eventually accommodate the limit
774960	779540	amplifiers. And I wanted to make that decision once because it was heavy and hard to wire.
779540	783120	So I wanted to make sure I was future-proof even if I wasn't
783120	786960	going out with the limit amplifiers at first.
787380	790520	I would use direct battery power for the station DC
791220	794380	and I would use dual batteries for flexibility.
794380	796620	I could use the AC inverter
797940	802460	from one battery with the DC supply from another or maybe I could use one while
802460	806500	charging the other. I knew I would get good flexibility by having
806500	810460	two batteries. And lastly, I would need a charger maintainer for the
810460	814560	van batteries because the van would be in storage a lot
814560	819220	of the time and, like any vehicle, you need to maintain those lead-acid batteries.
824260	825300	Here's a
825300	829320	diagram of the overall power design context.
829320	833200	I first have to apologize because my
833200	837060	writing is so terrible. It seems like I learned to print and to draw
837060	841500	and then just stopped learning when I was at the age of 7.
841500	845780	So my drawings are awful and I don't have the time or patience to draw them in
846520	848040	a drawing program.
848340	852660	I hope you'll forgive me for these awful looking diagrams.
854000	856800	The overall context diagram includes
856800	860920	the old systems and the new systems. It includes both AC and DC.
861420	865620	And we're going to be going over many of these systems one at a time.
869420	871680	We went over the requirements, the context
871680	875560	diagram, and now we'll spend some time
875560	878500	on the implementation of those power systems.
880120	883800	Here's a picture of the key power components.
883800	887940	Here's that 3 kW inverter, charger, switch that I mentioned.
887940	891620	And here are two 200 Ah each.
893120	895400	Nominally 12 volt batteries.
895400	901020	These are 115 pounds each, so they are quite beefy.
902440	903840	Batteries actually deliver
903840	905840	an enormous amount of current.
910640	914300	Even just mounting the batteries required skills I didn't have before.
914300	917160	And that's one theme I wanted to bring out.
917220	921940	This entire project taught me quite a few really basic
921940	924880	mechanical real world skills I didn't have before.
924880	930320	Many people learn how to do things like a cut with a table saw when they're in their teenage years.
930320	931640	I didn't know any of that.
931640	936880	I had a virtual life on computers almost my entire career.
937020	938680	This was new to me.
938680	944260	And it was scary making my first cut on my first table saw.
944260	946700	So this is just one
946700	950420	especially dangerous example of things that I learned to do
950420	952260	just for the sake of the van.
956790	962350	So using that table saw and my newfound skills, I cut boards to constrain
963030	966870	those 115 pound batteries horizontally.
966870	970210	I used straps that you can just barely see here and here
970210	972650	to constrain the batteries vertically.
972730	978410	And here is a binding post to tie together all the negative side of the system.
984700	987740	So let me describe the A.C. part of the
987740	989840	system build.
990820	996140	Over here is the native A.C. system that was already in the
996140	999460	van and here is my new A.C. system.
1000400	1003020	The inverter charger
1003020	1005860	switch can supply
1009080	1011180	current to the A.C.
1011180	1014280	system in a back feed arrangement
1014800	1018580	and the power is supplied from the shore power
1018580	1023280	into the new A.C. system, into that big blue box I showed.
1024380	1026680	I would have 15 amp outlets
1027800	1030480	that are existing in the racks
1030480	1035480	and I would also build 25 amp outlets that were brand new.
1035740	1038220	And to run off of battery power
1038220	1042240	there would also be a very large 200 amp capacity
1042240	1044940	connection to the battery system.
1047950	1052330	So here is a diagram of the A.C. power circuit. What I did was to
1053490	1056490	connect into, rather than replace, I connected into
1056490	1059050	existing A.C. circuits in the van.
1059050	1063190	So here is a supply that I pulled off
1063190	1067130	of these original circuits that
1067130	1071130	are no longer used in the van to supply A.C.
1071130	1074770	power into the inverter, say from shore power
1074770	1078990	when I'm, for instance, charging the batteries.
1079010	1082990	And then the output of the inverter would go through
1083910	1087290	a new 30 amp circuit breaker and then branch
1087290	1091090	off into two of the racks for an existing
1091090	1095470	15 amp circuit and another existing 15 amp circuit
1095470	1099150	for the other two racks. And lastly, I
1099150	1103330	installed two new sockets for higher current A.C.
1103330	1107960	supply. And here is what the
1109460	1112960	new A.C. power panel looked like.
1112960	1116740	This is the main circuit breaker. Here are the two 15
1116740	1120720	amp circuit breakers in a double arrangement.
1121160	1124960	And here are two higher current sockets for
1124960	1128940	someday for legal limit amplifiers that require
1128940	1132140	this amount of A.C. current. Here are the
1132740	1136620	two multi-wired cables going back to the electrical panel.
1136620	1139280	We'll take a look at the electrical panel shortly.
1141390	1146150	And here's that same system mounted onto the back of
1146150	1152880	rack number one. Now these two
1152880	1157400	multi-wired cables go to the A.C. distribution in the
1157400	1159840	back driver's side of the van.
1161220	1163060	Which looks like this.
1164880	1169200	This is a before picture and this is an after picture. And you can see those same two
1169200	1173520	multi-wired cables coming up into the panel on this side and being
1173520	1177340	wired into existing circuits. And you can see that I was lucky that this
1177340	1181440	terminal block had a lot of unused circuits. So that made
1181440	1185580	it a lot easier than it would otherwise have been to wire in my own
1186380	1188600	connections into the A.C. panel.
1191000	1194840	Now I added some labels to the native power panel to
1194840	1198940	tell me how the switches should be laid out, at least in
1198940	1201920	ordinary operating conditions. So this is the
1203620	1206720	input power into that
1206720	1210740	big blue box, the inverter charger switch. And these, even though they're
1210740	1214620	off in this picture, these would normally always be on. And in
1214620	1219040	contrast, I am connecting the output of that
1219040	1222720	inverter to these two circuits. So normally these would be off
1222720	1226840	because I already have current on them. But this does allow me
1226840	1230900	to do a back feed into the rest of the A.C. system if I had
1230900	1234800	some emergency that would require me to supply A.C. to other
1234800	1238200	parts of the van besides the rack circuits that were intended.
1242580	1245920	Now here's both D.C. power panels, and we'll be going into
1245920	1250080	this in detail. This is a picture at the bottom of rack number two,
1250080	1252480	in other words, the middle of the three racks.
1258670	1263070	So I'm first going to be talking about the battery system that's really at the core of
1263070	1267010	the entire system that supplies power to both the A.C. system
1267010	1270090	that we just talked about and to the station power.
1274260	1277420	The battery circuit is relatively simple
1277420	1281520	electrically, but it was hard to build because of the size of the
1281520	1285440	cables that I had to deal with. So you can see that here are the two
1285440	1288680	batteries I showed in the picture earlier. Each battery has
1289600	1293140	two fuses mounted right on the terminal, which I didn't even know existed
1293140	1297340	before I started this project. So that's a nice safety
1297340	1301400	feature to have a fuse right on the terminal of the battery.
1301400	1305840	200 amp coming off of each battery for the
1305840	1309180	inverter charger to give it enough power to supply
1309180	1313520	three kilowatts of A.C. power. And then the 80 amp circuit coming
1313520	1317580	off of each battery goes to this switch and then to
1317580	1325240	the station power system here. Here's more of a
1325240	1329260	close-up of the battery switch panel.
1329260	1333180	So here are the two switches that I showed in that circuit diagram.
1333180	1336840	They can select either battery or both together or
1336840	1341320	both off. These two
1341320	1345200	green panel
1345200	1349180	meters alternately show voltage and current, but only
1349180	1353080	when their respective switch is on. And this always
1353080	1356740	shows voltage to the batteries no matter the switch position.
1356740	1361320	All these meters are only on when the meter switch is on.
1361320	1365360	And that allows me to not drain the battery unnecessarily when, say,
1365360	1372550	the van is in storage. Here's the back
1372550	1376630	of that same panel. You can see how large some of these
1376630	1380510	cables are. This is a quad-zero gauge wire.
1380510	1384530	It's very big and very expensive and really hard to work with, as you might
1384530	1388530	imagine. These are two double-zero cables that go to each
1388530	1392410	battery. And this is the 200 amp side of the circuit. And, of course,
1392410	1396510	this is the 80 amp side of the circuit with 4-gauge
1396510	1402640	wire being used for that wiring. Here's a
1402640	1408400	top view of the installed batteries with the
1408400	1411600	two fuses that I mentioned earlier here
1411600	1414520	connecting to the panel. And you can just barely see down here
1414520	1418720	the common connection point for all the negative leads. In between the two
1418720	1422340	batteries is a, which I'll be talking about shortly, an
1422340	1426560	80 amp boost regulator. It just happened to fit very well between the batteries
1426560	1430560	just by chance. So it's a nice spot for it. It's nice and cozy
1430560	1434440	in there without having to take up, say, a rack space. So that
1434440	1442240	was a lucky thing. Now let's talk about
1442240	1445520	the two-way charging system.
1449470	1451810	And here are the controls for that
1452870	1456650	two-way charging system. On the right is another
1457590	1460870	instance of that volt-amp meter. In this case, this is
1460870	1465190	showing the voltage and current from or to
1465190	1467950	the van battery system.
1468590	1472870	This is a meter switch, like I talked before, so I can turn this meter off when
1472870	1476970	the van is in storage. And here's a double-throw switch that allows
1476970	1480830	me to put current in either direction into the batteries
1480830	1484630	from or to the native
1484630	1488450	vehicle battery. So in the up position,
1488450	1492610	I can charge the station from the van alternator while the van
1492610	1496630	is in operation. In the down position, I can charge the
1498290	1499290	van batteries
1500550	1504730	when the van is stationary. I can charge the van batteries
1506830	1509330	while AC power is supplied.
1513410	1516030	Here's a circuit of that two-way charging system.
1516030	1520190	So the key part of the system is these two 65-amp
1520190	1523690	solenoids that connect the station battery
1523690	1525350	to the vehicle battery
1527820	1532030	when necessary. These are in turn energized by
1533070	1536390	this smaller capacity relay that fires six seconds
1536390	1540150	after the ignition signal is set. I have
1540150	1544190	this six-second delay in order to allow the van engine
1544190	1548150	to stabilize before I connect the large station batteries
1548150	1551750	to the van batteries. And down here is
1552770	1556430	something called a battery tender, or in other words, a battery maintainer
1556430	1559950	charger. And this can be switched in
1559950	1564110	or out by that double-throw
1564110	1568210	toggle switch that I showed in the panel before. And this supplies current into
1568210	1572050	the van DC system
1572050	1575730	with the solenoids off in that position so I can
1575730	1578790	charge into the van DC system.
1586960	1591100	Next I'm going to talk about the station power system.
1591100	1593960	And that is fed from the battery system with
1595840	1598420	up to 80 amps and
1599180	1602740	then moves as a regulated 80 amps into station equipment
1602740	1612780	or into the computer. And here's the station
1612780	1616480	power control panel on the left-hand side of that
1616480	1620900	same rack panel I showed before. One controls
1620900	1625140	the input into the
1625140	1628620	80 amp booster, and the other controls whether
1628620	1632900	I am supplying power to HF components, VHF components, or
1632900	1642130	both. The station battery
1643570	1647210	switch output, that 80 amp switch
1647210	1651050	I showed in the lower panel, first goes to a MIDI
1651050	1654910	fuse block to supply current to the
1654910	1659530	unregulated battery output binding post.
1660510	1662990	It supplies current in from the
1662990	1667030	two-way charging system I showed earlier. And the main circuit is
1667030	1671270	an 80 amp fuse that protects the rest of the system for all the other
1671270	1675350	station components. There's a panel switch that I showed in the
1675350	1679110	previous picture that can turn
1679110	1683290	this circuit on or off and also can have a supply instead
1683290	1687190	of from the station batteries from some power
1687190	1691330	supply if I ever wanted to run the station on AC instead of DC.
1691490	1695230	That goes into that 80 amp boost regulator that was between the two
1695230	1699170	batteries that I showed earlier. I have a shunt resistor and an analog meter
1699170	1703250	to measure the instantaneous current being
1703250	1707290	used by the entire system. And the output of the boost regulator goes
1707290	1710670	to binding posts for further distribution.
1714720	1718280	And here is that further distribution. This is the connection point
1718280	1722160	from the left-hand side of the previous diagram. One side
1722160	1726500	goes to an unswitched power pole distribution for things like radios
1726500	1729520	that I'm going to use for both HF and VHF.
1730480	1734440	The rest of the distribution goes through a panel switch to select
1734440	1737640	either the HF or VHF equipment. And the HF
1738500	1742540	cable goes into a MIDI fuse box on another rack
1742540	1746160	shelf into the amplifier and a power pole distribution
1746160	1750440	for HF-only components like the screwdriver antenna and
1750440	1754380	the remote SWR meter. In the VHF
1754380	1758560	position, we have a high current and a low current connection.
1758560	1762420	The high current goes through a MIDI fuse box that I used in my
1762420	1765200	old minivan Rover to go to for
1766460	1770160	medium power amplifiers for the low VHF
1770160	1774480	bands. And another branch goes to
1774860	1777580	a power pole distribution system for low current
1778420	1782320	components like a small flex radio amplifier
1782320	1785420	fans, transverters, and an SWR power
1786160	1790400	meter power system. One little
1790400	1794360	branch circuit from the previous diagram goes through
1794860	1798740	a fuse box that can distribute unregulated
1798740	1802640	battery power. And the only component using that so far
1802640	1805720	is the computer. And we'll talk about that a little bit later.
1811330	1815590	Here's a picture of the station power distribution
1815590	1819370	shelf. So this is the connector I showed before that
1819370	1822950	was scary to put on because it was a live hot DC
1822950	1826970	that would have welded my tools if I wasn't careful.
1826970	1830990	The two fuses for the input DC from the
1830990	1834530	van. Here's the solenoid relays and the
1834530	1838990	relay timer for the delay of connecting the
1838990	1842390	station batteries to the van alternator.
1842530	1847010	Here's a first fuse box for
1847010	1850930	the distribution of battery power to three
1850930	1855010	different destinations, the most important of which is the
1856210	1858210	booster. And that
1858930	1862790	cable goes here to the front panel switch that selects either the
1864510	1867070	battery or a power supply for the input
1867070	1871050	to the booster. The booster is underneath this panel and comes out
1871050	1874850	here on the hot side and on the
1874850	1879050	ground side. So this is where the regulated voltage comes out from the booster.
1879050	1881990	That can be connected to directly or
1882970	1887270	another circuit goes to another panel switch
1887270	1890730	that allows me to switch to either VHF
1890730	1895910	distribution over here or to HF distribution over here.
1899910	1902630	Above that station distribution shelf
1902630	1908330	is an accessories rack shelf that includes a
1908330	1911270	system to power laptops that I no longer
1911270	1915090	use in the van, but that this was a big help when I
1915090	1917730	was transitioning off of laptops into
1919330	1923310	a permanently installed computer. On this side
1923310	1927050	are the three connection blocks that I talked about in the previous circuit
1927050	1931090	diagram. This is the direct station battery
1931090	1934950	unregulated, 12 volts from the station batteries that
1934950	1939170	go to the PC. This
1939170	1942190	power pole distribution block is the unswitched
1942810	1946870	power that goes to things like radios that I need for both HF and VHF
1946870	1950910	and here as you can see on the label is the power pole
1950910	1955590	distribution for VHF only components like transverters.
1957950	1960090	Now I'd like to talk about the build out of
1960690	1964550	HF and 6 meter amplifiers. There's a series
1964550	1968210	of photographs that show the build process just as an example
1968210	1973290	of how I built these things out for better or worse.
1975240	1977300	The HF amplifier is an
1977300	1981540	Amaritron 500N amplifier which produces about 400 RF
1981540	1985560	watts. This is the side of the
1985560	1988960	distribution that supplies HF only
1989460	1993760	power poles for other lower current devices and
1993760	1997960	we're going to see a series of construction pictures next.
1998740	2001960	Here's the amplifier mounted using a
2003240	2007400	piece of angled aluminum where I screwed in the
2007400	2010140	screwed in the aluminum into
2012400	2014580	existing screw holes for the
2014580	2018840	cover of the amplifier and then the vertical bolts bolt down into
2018840	2023700	the rack shelf.
2023700	2027120	After the amplifier I put in wood in the other spaces in order to mount
2027120	2031300	the rest of the system here and use for future
2031300	2035340	items here which turned out to be the 6 meter amplifier that I'll talk about.
2038310	2041130	Here's just mounting the main components in the
2041130	2046940	back and here we are wired.
2047500	2051000	Here's the high current connections to the
2051000	2054300	amplifier through these MIDI fuses
2054300	2058700	and one more branch goes to this small power pole distribution
2058700	2062700	and you can see this unusual connection of just the positive side. This is the
2062700	2066820	bias voltage which is a separate wire that goes into the
2066820	2069440	Ameritron amplifier. And finally
2070700	2074900	this is the system actually mounted in the van
2074900	2079020	with all the connections. Here is a
2079680	2083140	remote probe for SWR and
2083140	2087060	RF power that I connected to the output of the amplifier.
2087060	2090280	Here's several of the HF only components including this screwdriver
2090280	2094660	and that probe. Here's a PTT
2094660	2098980	line from the amplifier to hit the relay
2098980	2102780	during transmission for the amplifier. And finally
2103720	2107300	here's the power input into this shelf from the
2107300	2110940	station booster shelf, the picture of which I showed earlier,
2110940	2115340	with two 4 gauge cables that go down to that other shelf.
2117100	2121060	Now just this week I installed a 6 meter amplifier
2121060	2124660	that I had for a long time and a 50 volt power system.
2125600	2129180	So the amplifier needed 50 volts and I decided to
2129180	2133180	supply that with my first big lithium battery and also built
2133420	2137280	a switching monitoring and inrush board that I'll show later.
2140220	2142940	Here's the mount board for the 6 meter amplifier
2142940	2147160	that I used to help tie down that amplifier.
2147160	2151440	The legs go into these glued down PVC caps.
2151880	2155240	I have four eyelets for small bungee
2155240	2159120	cords to constrain the amplifier vertically and
2159120	2163000	these are four countersunk holes so I can put wood screws into the
2163000	2166760	piece of wood that's below this mounting board.
2168240	2171440	And here's the amplifier mounted next to the
2172120	2175060	HF amplifier. Now there's two years between
2175060	2179060	these two things. I built this shelf with the HF amplifier
2179060	2183080	two years ago and this was just this week that I put
2183080	2186080	the 6 meter amplifier in.
2188150	2192430	Here's a picture of that large 50 volt 50 amp
2192430	2197230	battery with some of the tools I used for the connections.
2200510	2202450	And here's what the battery
2202450	2206390	looked like. Before I put the restraining boards in
2206390	2210470	I put the battery in with the connector to make sure everything fit as I
2210470	2213870	expected before starting to make cuts. And as you can see
2214390	2218010	this is that AC distribution I talked about early
2218010	2223050	in my presentation. And here is the box for the generator.
2223050	2226310	So this little kind of cubby hole is otherwise
2226310	2230450	wasted space. So although I had to turn the battery on its side it was
2230610	2233890	a nice fit, a nice use for otherwise wasted space.
2237880	2240840	That cable from the battery is
2240840	2244920	mounted on a board and the board is mounted on the side of the van and this
2244920	2248840	represents a connection point for the battery. This allows me to connect or
2248840	2252700	disconnect the battery as necessary for my different operations.
2255650	2258490	Here's the 50 volt power
2258490	2262670	shelf that I built recently. This is
2263790	2266710	a box that contains a shunt resistor for
2266710	2270110	the metering system and a bolted down
2270710	2273850	midi battery. And this is the cable for
2275410	2278870	supplying the voltages to the battery
2278870	2283110	monitor here in the front. This is all in a
2283110	2286970	treasure box, a wooden treasure box from a hobby store, kind of hillbilly
2287230	2291170	engineering I call it. But I can close this lid to protect all these different
2291170	2294910	connection points. I'm kind of paranoid now that I'm 50 volts versus 14
2294910	2297630	volts. That can supply quite a shock.
2298750	2302410	Over here, maybe the most unusual looking part of this system is
2302410	2306170	these resistors connected in parallel, also mounted in
2306530	2310710	a hobby box. This is for inrush current
2310710	2314590	protection. What I saw when I used this amplifier
2314590	2318310	several years ago was that there was quite a spark
2318870	2322670	of very high current as the capacitors got charged up from
2322670	2326690	the capacitors, the amplifiers got charged up from the
2326690	2330210	battery. And that kind of big inrush of current is not good
2330210	2334810	for the battery and it's not good for the connectors. So a
2334810	2339030	feature that I included was an inrush current protection by forcing
2339030	2342930	the initial current to go through a total of
2342930	2346970	16 ohms that limits the current to less than 4 amps. And then
2346970	2350470	that rapidly degrades to allow me to give it
2350470	2354670	full power. Two switches on the front, one to
2356070	2358470	charge the battery through this conventional
2359210	2363090	power pole connection. So the charger gets connected here
2363090	2367010	and I have one position for the charge. The other position goes to this other
2367010	2371370	switch, one position of which forces the current
2371370	2375450	through the 16 ohm resistor for inrush current
2375450	2379190	limitation. And the other position, number 2 position, is a straight
2379190	2383310	connection into the amplifier without the resistors for normal operation.
2383590	2387330	And here, this is a meter that I
2387330	2390270	had removed to make room for this shelf and
2391010	2395170	this was just simply a convenient place to put this meter
2395170	2399350	that monitors the voltage for my booster and my battery
2399350	2403150	for the 14 volt system. So this has nothing to do with the 50 volt system,
2403150	2407570	it was just a convenient place because I have a limited amount of rack space.
2410140	2412560	And lastly, here's the whole system
2415000	2417580	configured for test. You can barely
2417580	2421660	see maybe the numbers on the meter
2421660	2425620	that shows instantaneous voltage amperage
2425620	2429780	and shows overall amp hours and watt hours.
2429780	2433680	So that's this meter glowing here. You can see the lights on over here
2433680	2437600	at the amplifier. This is actually an HF
2438460	2441120	dummy load that's supposed to go up to, as you can see,
2441120	2444940	it goes up to 30 MHz, but I used it because I didn't have any other
2445460	2449740	dummy load that could take that much power. It was a 1.6 to 1 SWR
2450420	2453580	at low power, so I didn't want to fire
2453580	2457580	this 6 meter amplifier up all the way. But I did verify
2457580	2461700	that it puts out 20 times the power that's put into it.
2462120	2465440	I tested it up to 600 watts with a FM carrier, so
2465440	2469040	I'm satisfied. It basically works and nothing smoked, so
2469040	2473200	it was nice to have that first test go well.
2478520	2481220	I have not yet installed VHF
2481880	2485040	equipment, although my VHF equipment is
2485840	2489780	battle-tested. I haven't installed the shelves, but when I do,
2489780	2493500	each band will be on one shelf. Each one will include a medium power
2493500	2498020	amplifier, which I kind of referred to earlier in a power distribution
2500700	2503860	schematic. I'll have a digital
2503860	2507560	SWR meter for probes for each band, so I can see the power
2507560	2511920	going out of each amplifier. And, as I mentioned,
2511920	2515760	all the VHF equipment is already contest-proven, so I have confidence that the
2515760	2519360	equipment I have will work. It's just a matter of
2519360	2523820	mounting it. The 10 meter
2523820	2527400	or 28 MHz IF that goes into the
2527400	2531400	transverter port will come from the milliwatt output of
2531400	2535240	the FlexRadio 6500. And I'll
2535240	2539380	probably have a manual switch for selecting which band gets
2539380	2543470	that IF initially, but I do want to
2544640	2547320	install an automatic switch so I can select
2547320	2551240	the band from the radio and have the IF switch
2551240	2555380	through a relay. And I have those components, but I want to do one step at
2555480	2559120	a time. It was good to talk about the power
2559120	2563380	first, but next I want to talk about the radio and computers in the van.
2567600	2570560	When I first started, and I made major
2571640	2574640	assumptions about power systems, I originally aimed to use
2574640	2578500	the Flex5000, which was my first 100-watt radio that I used
2578500	2582360	at home. It's well-suited because it has
2582360	2586600	transverter outputs and multiple RF and PTT outputs
2586600	2590100	that you'd expect from a flagship radio.
2591280	2594900	And the need for a good, powerful
2594900	2598780	PC for this SVR drove the decision originally to
2598780	2602320	use AC power for the van. Now what happened
2602320	2606520	after I installed the entire AC system,
2606520	2610600	one of my VHF club members offered a new generation Flex6500
2611220	2614220	for a surprisingly low price.
2614220	2618140	That latest series from Flex radio
2618140	2622540	includes self-contained computing power, so you don't need a big PC.
2622540	2626340	Got fantastic programmable interface for driving relays, that makes
2627120	2630320	some downstream work a lot easier than it would be
2630320	2633880	with any other radio that I know of.
2634380	2638220	It also has the same transverter and multiple programmable PTT
2638220	2642700	outputs as my 5000, and lastly, not a big thing,
2642700	2646760	but it's nice that it directly supports rack mounting. So I did buy that
2646760	2649420	even though I made a lot of expensive decisions
2651200	2654680	that were the foundation of which were
2654680	2658700	the assumption I was going to use the Flex5000. So I now have a Flex6500
2659340	2662840	in the van. And here
2662840	2666740	it is, mounted. Here's the front of the radio, which currently most of that is
2666740	2669660	obscured by my monitor, but I do have
2669660	2673740	access to the power button, that's the most important thing.
2674240	2677320	And here's the connections to the headphones and the
2677320	2681360	foot switch. And here's a view of the rear of the radio.
2682200	2685760	It's not the flagship of the line, but it has enough
2685760	2689180	connections to make things worthwhile, and you'll see
2689180	2693720	the most unusual connection for most radios is this Ethernet
2693720	2696840	connection, and that connects to my PC
2696840	2700780	in order to have a GUI for this radio, because you can see
2700780	2705240	on the front panel there are no conventional controls like a
2705240	2713020	VFO knob. Another radio I installed was the
2713020	2716940	ICOM IC7100. That was my first mobile radio for both
2716940	2720920	HF and VHF rover contesting. So it has
2720920	2724940	HF, it has two VHF, well I guess
2724940	2728320	three if you count six meters, three VHF or UHF
2730600	2732920	bands. So it's a
2732920	2736660	really nice, tremendous value radio and used as a
2736660	2740620	backup radio, maybe an IF for the microwaves, maybe
2740880	2744320	as a FM radio for just
2745100	2748900	making contacts to the local repeater. Anyway, it's a jack-of-all-trades
2748900	2752520	radio that turned out to be vital because
2752520	2756120	an older radio broke when I was on a major rove in Canada
2756120	2759120	and I was able to use that
2760680	2764040	IC7100 in the rove, preventing
2764240	2767300	a major disaster for that long trip.
2771280	2775100	And this just shows that IC7100 under test
2775100	2778980	and various components of that rack shelf
2778980	2783680	where the main unit of the IC7100 is tied down here.
2783680	2787400	This is PTT connections because it's a small radio
2787400	2791580	so everything comes out of this multi-pin connection
2791580	2795360	that allows me access to this. And this is an automatic
2795360	2799660	screwdriver antenna tuner, which I really don't use that much, but I had it
2799660	2803000	so I mounted it with the radio that it operates with.
2808590	2811910	Now again, another decision that was based on originally wanting to use the
2811910	2816070	Flex 5000 that needs a big PC was to get a desktop-class
2816070	2819830	rack-mounted PC. I had this built by a specialist vendor who
2821290	2823530	built PCs especially for that
2823530	2827850	series of Flex radios. Now, with the new generation, the
2827850	2831890	Flex 6500, it's overkill. I don't need anywhere near that amount of
2831890	2835130	CPU power, but I already have it so that's what I'm using.
2836430	2839450	Later on, I replaced the original AC power supply
2839450	2843890	from the vendor with a DC supply. In other words, what I mean by
2843890	2847830	DC supply is that it's a computer power supply, but instead of the
2847830	2851930	input being AC, it's DC. That thing was expensive,
2851930	2856310	but it eliminated the original need for the AC base station.
2856310	2859730	And again, boy, I wish I made that decision a year before, because
2859730	2864110	I spent a lot of time and money getting an AC base station built.
2866550	2866870	That
2868010	2871350	power supply accepts a wide voltage input, and
2871350	2875830	that voltage accepted is within the range of the raw battery, so I don't have
2875830	2879350	to regulate that voltage. I can just connect it to my
2879350	2883910	batteries as is through, of course, a distribution system
2883910	2885350	that I showed you earlier.
2887550	2891790	This PC works great with the new Flex 6500, and also works with the
2891790	2896270	older 3000 or 5000 lines, because it has a
2896270	2900850	good firewire connection. Now, what I did was
2900850	2903790	brought out the 5V and 12V from inside the PC
2903790	2906510	to a connector outside
2907590	2912050	for use of low current logic like Arduino boards
2912050	2915890	or relay boards, rather than having a separate DC power supply
2915890	2919790	for those components. So, I haven't actually used that yet, but that's going to
2919790	2924630	save some rack space and possibly save some additional source of RF noise.
2924790	2927950	And lastly, at least I have a video
2927950	2931670	adapter in there that supports a UHD 4K monitor,
2931670	2935670	not all built-in video systems of a
2936290	2940050	PC without a separate adapter would support a
2940050	2949800	high-def monitor, and that is a big deal to me. That's a big help.
2949800	2952240	So, here's a rack-mount PC, the back
2952240	2956240	of the PC anyway. Nothing very remarkable, except it does
2956360	2960660	take a lot of room in the rack, and it's kind of heavy. And actually, one of my
2960660	2964040	projects that I'm going to do shortly is to reinforce this, because I really
2964040	2967700	should have some weight support in the back of this
2967700	2970840	PC, rather than just laying it hanging from the front.
2972660	2975660	And just to emphasize again, this is the power input
2975660	2980040	to the PC, and that
2980040	2983640	DC input power supply is supplied through these
2983640	2988820	input terminals, where normally the modular AC connector would be.
2993670	2996050	My computer monitor is a 4K
2996050	3000010	monitor. It's kind of mounted kind of floppy, but I'm working
3000010	3004230	on an improved mount. There's enough room for an SDR interface
3004230	3008130	and many windows, and man, screen real estate is really vital
3008130	3012310	in today's ham contest. You have chat pages,
3012310	3017390	you have monitoring systems, you have your logger, you have a
3017390	3022350	rotator control. So, all these controls are
3022350	3024450	soft controls, so it takes a lot of
3025850	3028150	monitor real estate space.
3028310	3032490	Now, I use Samsung monitors. I used a smaller one before, and what
3033070	3036470	at least they used to. I don't know what the situation
3036470	3040350	is today, but many of the mid-range and above Samsung monitors
3040350	3044290	use a separate AC to 14 volt adapter.
3044290	3048390	I don't know of any other manufacturer that has a 14 volt input, so what's nice
3048390	3052590	there is, I can replace the power brick that takes AC
3052590	3056510	with a power pole connector, so I can directly supply DC voltage
3056510	3060990	from my station supply as the input into the monitor.
3060990	3064190	So, just a recommendation, if you want to
3064190	3068830	run your monitor from station power, look into the
3068830	3072590	Samsung monitors, and you'll have
3072970	3076550	a little bit of simplicity in one less brick, one less
3076550	3079110	source of RF interference.
3082170	3085010	And here's a picture of the operating
3085010	3089150	position, showing that monitor and the nice amount of
3090550	3093310	screen real estate. This is an old radio
3093310	3096870	they used to use. They used to use a Flex 3000. That's been replaced.
3096990	3101570	And here's one of the most important things I ever bought, which was a
3101570	3105250	battery-operated fan. And this is blowing right at my face, and it is
3105250	3109190	the difference between operating in 90 degree weather or not operating in 90 degree weather.
3109190	3113070	Remember, the van is off. There's no air conditioning in the van
3113070	3116570	when I'm operating, so having that fan be able to blow on me
3116570	3120250	is a huge help on hot summer days.
3123790	3125670	Next, I'm going to go quickly through
3128050	3131730	the progress I've made on microwaves so far in the van.
3132870	3135110	Now, I was just starting to buy
3135690	3140370	used microwave equipment, even in my minivan days.
3140370	3144370	That's kind of my normal pattern, where if I know
3144370	3148450	I'm going to go someplace down the road, if I see an inexpensive piece of equipment
3148450	3152150	being offered, I'll just buy it up knowing I would use it for the future.
3152990	3156370	Now, then a successful pack rat
3156370	3159350	that's my VHF club's name,
3159350	3164370	retired from roving, and he sold me his complete set of working microwave
3164370	3167990	bands from 33 centimeters or 903
3167990	3172490	megahertz all the way up to 24 gig.
3173370	3177070	They were put aside until I could work on them.
3179450	3181630	I concentrated first on the lower
3181630	3185950	five microwave bands, because they were interior mounted.
3186250	3189630	Physically, the 33 and 23 centimeter bands were
3189630	3193430	separate on two-tier wood mounts, and the
3193430	3197610	next three bands were all on one long plywood board, so I had
3197710	3202410	a project to separate all the equipment and mount them each on a rack shelf.
3205250	3207330	Now here's those three bands
3207330	3210750	on one big plywood board I talked about. What I did was,
3210750	3215250	believe it or not, and I can't believe it myself sometimes, I put that big
3215250	3219270	board on the... I did do a little bit of separation first, but
3220550	3223090	here, because they're so close together, but
3223090	3227170	I actually ran the table saw I showed you earlier,
3227170	3229930	I ran that table saw to physically disconnect
3231110	3235490	each of these bands, and then mount each band on a
3235490	3239150	separate rack shelf.
3239150	3243410	It's hard to see, but you can just barely see the outline of each shelf
3243410	3249960	in this bottom row of pictures. And here
3249960	3254340	are the first five microwave bands mounted in the
3254340	3257520	fourth rack. This is the rack that you can see directly
3257520	3261320	in when you first enter the side door of the van. So it goes
3261320	3265520	903 up to 5 gig. Down
3265520	3269440	the bottom here are two 12-volt batteries
3269440	3274060	about the size of a normal car battery, although they're deep-cycle AGM batteries,
3274060	3277520	and their charger. So this is the basic supply for
3277520	3280040	the power for the microwaves.
3282760	3287100	And here's a picture of the rear. Not terribly interesting, and a lot of
3287100	3291140	the mess of wires, those green wires and blue wires, are actually left over from
3291140	3294920	the old van, so I'll probably be taking those out before making the connections
3294920	3300800	on the back. Power requirements of the micros
3302640	3305420	included high current 26.5
3305420	3308260	volts, high current 12.6 volts for
3309180	3313100	the four low bands, and of course all the
3313100	3317080	bands require nominal 12 volts for transverters, etc., like most radio equipment
3317080	3320360	does. And I had a requirement for 5 volts for
3321050	3323480	TTL logic and USB.
3324640	3328780	My peak power estimate was 250 watts total.
3328780	3333580	Now one unusual problem was that these are, most of them anyway,
3333580	3336980	are Class A amplifiers, so there's a large current draw
3336980	3340780	whether or not there's RF applied. So one of my requirements is that I would
3340780	3344180	supply power only when the particular band was selected.
3344180	3347720	And the relays on my distribution board
3347720	3351620	should energize with grounding of the 24 volt
3352060	3355980	system, because that's the same procedure that's used for the
3355980	3360180	IF relays I had. The control
3361600	3363620	power supplies would be separate
3364120	3368240	and I'd want to monitor the current and voltages in the system.
3369920	3372100	So here's the board I built to meet
3372100	3375920	all those requirements. Central to it, of course, are these two power
3375920	3379700	supplies that have the two voltage outputs I
3379700	3384020	need, 12.6 and 26.5, and they are powered
3384020	3387340	from nominally 24 volts
3388260	3391460	from the two batteries that are on the bottom, the two 12 volt batteries
3391460	3395740	are in series. And the only reason I made that decision versus
3396260	3399840	a 12 volt supply at higher current was that I couldn't find power
3399840	3403360	supplies with these outputs at these currents
3403360	3407800	at anything less than a 24 volt supply.
3407800	3411900	Here are my meters in the front. I'll have a better view of that later.
3411900	3416060	Yet another shunt resistor
3416060	3420120	to measure instantaneous current and the distribution
3420120	3423560	of voltage to the
3423560	3427160	various components in the power supplies. Here are two
3427160	3431240	relays that I used to switch in from the front
3431240	3433340	panel, and here's my much smaller
3433340	3439160	5 volt power supply. Here is a
3439960	3443520	self-contained, I bought this as one unit, self-contained relay board
3443520	3447400	with four relays. This meets my requirements of only supplying power
3447400	3451720	to the high current amplifiers when their particular
3451720	3455160	band is selected. So you can see
3455160	3459360	that there's two connections for 26 and two connections for 12 volts
3459360	3463020	that are controlled by the relays, and then the
3464120	3467240	triggers here that are 24 volts, the triggers
3467240	3471400	are brought out in this smaller terminal strip. And over
3471400	3475420	here, this is meeting my requirement for the distribution
3475420	3479820	of plain old 12 volts to the various components like transverters.
3479820	3483380	And these are all powered from, of course, the 12 volt power
3483380	3487580	supply side. So, quite a lot going on in this board, and
3487580	3491680	this took me quite a long time to lay out all the components,
3491680	3499360	no less build it all out. Here's the front
3499360	3502320	power panel. The analog
3503520	3507460	amp meter is here. This is the battery monitor,
3507460	3511440	the battery voltage monitor that has a little graphic that shows how much power
3511440	3515320	is left, which is possible because they're AGM batteries rather than lithium
3515320	3519400	batteries. Here are three switches for turning on
3519400	3522740	the power supplies individually, and these are
3523880	3526340	meters, digital meters that monitor the
3527220	3531460	three different available voltages. The reason I went to all the trouble of having
3531460	3535480	separate switches for the power supplies was to limit
3535480	3539420	inrush current, so I could switch each power supply on in
3539420	3543520	turns. I mean, I could have done it, I guess, in a more
3543520	3546800	sophisticated way, but this was a simple solution to just
3547510	3551660	flip, flip, flip, and limit the total inrush
3551660	3555360	current to the system. And that's it.
3555360	3559160	If you're watching this video live at DEF CON,
3559160	3563760	I think we're going to have a live Q&A after this. If not,
3563760	3567100	if you're watching this video offline, you are welcome to
3567100	3570160	write me at my QRZ email address.