Hilltop repeater on solar running unattended for 3 months

GENERAL

Maintain a VHF repeater and remote HF station on a hilltop about 40 min from my house. No commercial power. Ran AGM batteries with panels for years but the temp swings up there killed the AGMs every 2–3 years and I could never run the HF rig because the AGMs couldn't handle TX current.

Swapped everything for an Anker Solix E10 with panels in March. Repeater draws almost nothing on standby. The real reason I went bigger than needed is the HF station. Added a remote 7300 on Starlink so I can operate from home. Full TX draw is maybe 275W, ragchew sessions barely touch the battery.

The RF noise floor from the site is absurdly clean. Did a waterfall sweep from 160 through 6 and there's nothing. Way quieter than my home QTH with all the neighborhood switch mode hash.

Haven't driven up there for anything other than antenna work since March.

One practical note: the E10 is directly wired into a 50A standard inlet box. Installation was much more plug-and-play than I expected, and it made integrating the whole setup into the existing site wiring pretty straightforward.

Posted Jul 8, 2026, 12:09 PM UTC

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