Header banner
Revain logoHome Page
Jason Franco photo
1 Level
752 Review
64 Karma

Review on ACOPOWER HY AS AA1228 Foldable Solar Extension by Jason Franco

Revainrating 5 out of 5

So if it could support almost 17 hours of live broadcasting at 100 watts it would certainly be good for what I wanted to use.

Where do you start when you've bought what you need and the product has exceeded all expectations?! I'll start here. :-) I bought this ACOPOWER 100W Portable Solar Panel Kit with two 12V 22Ah batteries (Mighty Max ML22-12) to make an electrical system for my ham radio. I had it in no time (thanks Revain and Acopower) and took it to the 2018 ARRL Ham Radio Field Day, which is attended by 40,000 radio amateurs across the US. ONLY in the solar system. I didn't have to use generators like at other stations. Even at 7pm I could have driven longer, but I didn't want the battery voltage to drop below 12.4 volts, which it did at 7pm. I worked on the generator until 5am the next day when I put the solar system back in place. At 5am I didn't get any direct sunlight but it was enough to charge those batteries. Around 6am I turned off the generator and we walked through the solar system to the official conclusion of Field Day which is at 12 noon (mountain time zone). .I measured the voltage coming out of the M terminals (on the back of the panels where you can attach another solar panel) and it was 22 volts with no load. When I connected the batteries to it, the voltage was 17 volts. And here's the kicker! I did not run the AM radio on batteries. I had a 100w rf transceiver that was transmitting at least 70% of the time. This means that during the 24 hours of the Day of the Field competition, I broadcast a lot more than I probably should have done. I don't know what the radio's duty cycle is, but 70% of 24 hours is 16.8 hours of DIRECT transmission. and it was 100w RF power to boot. Others may or may not care, but I can assure you that ACOPOWER's solar system was up to the challenge! And that worries me! I bought these for my ARES Go kit which includes a 65w VHV radio. what in the box i would only use 10 watts or so. So if it could support almost 17 hours of live broadcasting at 100W, I'm sure it would be great for what I originally intended to use it for. .The case looks very solid. Bonus! I wasn't sure what the case would be like, but I was pleasantly surprised! May I encourage YOU to take a look at ACOPOWER? You can bet your lowest dollar!

Pros
  • A sea of positive emotions
Cons
  • I don't like anything about it, everything is fine