One of the functions of Amateur Radio is emergency communication. While conversing on one of my local repeaters the power went out briefly. I was off the air for a minute or two. Once regaining power and apologizing for my sudden disappearance from the friendly conversation, the question was posed by Gary, AB2NC. He said, "Don't you have back-up power? What happens in an emergency?". Excellent query. He happens to run off batteries all the time.

This got me thinking (A dangerous thing by the way!). The need for back-up power is something I suspect few Amateurs actually deal with in his/her station. If there is an emergency that causes the local supply of electricity to fail, how many of us actually have a means by which to operate and do so in a timely manner. Yeah ... You could run out to your car and rip out the battery, or use an HT. But what if there is a need for a high power station to be made available for the emergency.

Ham's are arguably the most ingenious bunch of hobbyists in our nation, and can also provide a useful resource in such situations. I am sure that with all the work we do on grounding systems, tower construction, cable runs through our shack walls, and all the other station set-up issues we deal with, how many of us actually have an external, long-lasting source of back-up power? And if we do, does it come on without interruption. We go out and purchase UPS for our computers, but do we do the work to build high capacity energy storage systems for our stations? It is very possible to build such systems, but you hear very little in this area in publications and general QSO discussions.

Several Hams have described to me systems they have designed for regular use, in place of power supplies, utilizing multiple large storage cells, placed outdoors, with plenty of protection from the elements and ventilation. It would be interesting to hear about various high power, high current, large capacity emergency back-up power systems that other Ham's have designed and utilize. Does anyone use an automatic system that kicks-on, in a seamless way, when local AC fails?

I think all Ham's should remember their primary responsibility the privilege of having a ticket bears, and consider working on some type of systems for quick and lasting power during a power challenged emergency. I will be ... What do you think?

John LeVasseur