Amateur Radio, AX25, IPv6, Technology, Work

World IPv6 Day

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In “Celebration” of World IPv6 Day, David suggested that we try a “Crazy Ping”, showing how easy it is to get IPv6 running, even on the most oddball networks.  For the heck of it, I configured up this evening the following

A Netbook with an Icom ID-1 D-Star radio plugged into its ethernet port.

A Laptop with both an Icom ID-1 D-Star radio plugged into its ethernet port, and a Kenwood TH-D72 configured in Kiss Mode (9600baud AX.25) plugged into a USB port. The laptop was then configured with an IPv6 over IPv4 tunnel to…

A Desktop, with a Kenwood TM-D710 configured in Kiss mode plugged into an RS-232 port.  The desktop also is my sixxs tunnel endpoint.

It isn’t often that you can ‘hear’ someone connect to your computer, but with every packet, the squelch on the TH-D72 opened. So I could hear every packet going to the notebook.

The “Testbed”:

The result:


j0n@scott:~$ ping6 -c 1 2001:770:132:deaf::2
PING 2001:770:132:deaf::2(2001:770:132:deaf::2) 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 2001:770:132:deaf::2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=60 time=3073 ms

--- 2001:770:132:deaf::2 ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 3073.686/3073.686/3073.686/0.000 ms

Now why would anyone want to run IPv6 over IPv4 over AX.25? well that is a different question altogether, all I can say is that it works, but not very efficiently.

DIY, Green, Technology

Micro PV, one year on.

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So, after 12 months, what do the numbers say?

Well first a quick reminder of what I have running. A Steca Grid 300 from mysolarshop.co.uk, fed from two Evergreen ES-180RL 180 watt PV panels on the roof of the shed.  They are fairly flat on the shed and not in an ideal location. There is about 5-10 degree of tilt on the panels.  One of them is ‘facing’ South East, the other North West. So a very non-ideal situation, but useful nonetheless.

I’m using rrtdool to graph the output from an Envi CC128. The CC128 is measuring the output of the Steca grid-tie inverter.

So for the last 12 months rrdtool is saying an ‘average’ of 35 watts is produced every day. So from the back-of-an-envelope, we get 0.035*24*365 or approximately 306 kWh produced, with a value of approximately €55. Not a whole lot really.

Looking at the ‘average’ consumed by the house. It is now showing as 391 Watts (down from 455 the last time I looked). Giving 0.391 *24*365 or approximately 3425kWh (approx €620).

In short, its knocking about 10% off the electricty bill at present, not a lot, but given the panels don’t receive any direct sunlight in mid winter, it isn’t bad at all.

The experiment continues.

Amateur Radio, Satellites, Technology

ISS and Discovery

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Monday evening was a rare oportunity with clear skies which allowed for a wonderful sighting of Discovery, OV-103. The ISS and Discovery were both visible, undocked and the ISS appeared to be chasing Discovery across the night sky.  This was the last opportunity we had to see the pair and it is something I will never forget. Since then Discovery has successfuly landed and will be slowly making its way to the Smithsonian.

Shortly after undocking, the following picture was taken by an ISS crew member.

Absolutely stunning! Even more amazing is the following picture spotted by Bill Meara, N2CQR (on spaceweather.com) which he posts about here.

It is relatively easy to make out the Discovery and the ISS in the picture.  I think you would agree, both are stunning.

General, Technology

Parting of ways

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This evening, a long partnership ended. This partnership has existed for approximately 15 years, longer than I’ve owned my car, my (our) house, indeed longer than I’ve been married.

It was a long and amicable relationship, based on mutual dependency and trust. I supplied the power, and, in return, it provided me with light. I am talking of course, about a now defunct, Philips 18watt energy saving lightbulb. It has now joined it’s colleague in lightbulb heaven!

DIY, Green, Weather

Winter

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Winter is most definitely on the way, slight frost on the car this morning, and the weather station run by the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group showing a significant dip last night, though it was colder on Sunday night. Strangely though, I’m looking forward to getting a nice fire going on our new stove. And seeing how well it can heat the sitting room and the rest of the house.

First Light

I finished off the rewiring i mentioned in a previous post.  This was mostly just a tidy up of the cables around the inverter. The inverter itself is an older model Powermaster PM-1500SL-24, however the battery charging circuit generates terrible Radio Frequency interference. This means that the shortwave bands are completely obliterated when charging is taking place (from either solar or mains/generator power), so I leave the inverter off unless I need it. I use a Steca PR3030 and two 80watt panels, facing roughly South, to keep the battery bank topped up.

I have tested the system it by running the central heating, fridge-freezer and chest freezer off the inverter for a few hours, but I must give it a more thorough test at some stage in the near future.  The batteries are no longer new and, should there be a power cut, I’d better be able to keep the TV running or the boss will not be pleased!

Green, Technology

Averages, and another Gorilla update.

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I was wondering the other day, how accurate the rrdtool graphs are. Currently the average shows is 455 Watts thus far this year (the graph stretches back to last October). So if the average stayed at this value for the full 12 months, what would my total kWh be for the year?
.455 * 24 *365 = 3985.8 kWh
As a comparison, I looked at my total kWh for last year which was 3940kWh. Pretty close I think you would agree.

Now, lets look at the average kWh from my Gorilla installation. Today, the average is 63 watts (since april). So, 63 * 24 * 365 = 551.88 kWh or approximately €100. If we put the price of the bits and pieces I have at €1500. That means that it would recover its costs in approx. 15 years.

Now, if, in our case, we consider the typical cost for a proper, grid-tie, 1kW Photovoltaic system in Ireland is about €4000. What would the cost recovery period be?

As the average sun-hours per day, per annum in the South East of Ireland is approximately 4 sun-hours per day, and the average consumption of our house is lets say 500watts (455 at the moment). That would mean we would recover 4 x 500 or approximately 2Kw of power per day from the system, with 2Kw going back to the grid, of no benefit to me (money wise).
2 * 365 = 730kWh or approximately €131. That gives a cost-recovery period of approx 30 years, ouch.

Assuming that my calculations above are correct, without a decent feed in tariff, PV doesn’t really make sense economically does it?

C’mon Munster!