[Phillip Beall (W5EBC)]

All,

I ran across an interesting real-world test this morning at Commander Zero’s Notes From The Bunker. He has been experimenting with a Jackery portable power station and solar panels at his remote “Beta Site,” primarily to run Starlink and recharge various batteries without having to haul everything back home for charging.

His setup is pretty straightforward: a Jackery power station, a 200-watt solar panel and a 100-watt panel, Starlink, and eventually a Milwaukee M18 battery charger. In good sun he was seeing about 242 watts coming into the Jackery from the panels, while Starlink was typically consuming only about 24–34 watts. In other words, he could operate Starlink continuously while the battery itself continued gaining charge. He then added the Milwaukee charger and was still able to operate everything while bringing the Jackery back to essentially 100 percent. Read his complete test here.

One thing about the article particularly caught my attention. Years ago, one of the reasons I bought a Goal Zero Yeti for our storm shelter was its ability to accept power from either AC or solar while simultaneously supplying power to connected equipment. Goal Zero calls this pass-through charging, and the capability makes a battery station much more useful as part of an ongoing backup-power system rather than simply as a large battery that you charge, disconnect and then discharge. Goal Zero still specifically supports operating equipment while the Yeti is charging. Goal Zero explanation.

My recollection was that Jackery units from only a few years ago were not nearly as elegant in this regard, which is why Commander Zero’s test surprised me. Apparently Jackery has made considerable progress. Current Jackery models support simultaneous charging and discharging, and Jackery specifically states that normal pass-through operation is supported and is not expected to adversely affect battery life. Jackery’s explanation is here.

That is a meaningful improvement for emergency communications. Instead of thinking of one of these units simply as stored battery capacity, we can increasingly think of it as the center of a small independent power system:

Solar / AC → Power Station → Starlink, radios, routers, chargers and other equipment

As long as incoming solar power exceeds the load during enough of the day, the battery can support equipment while simultaneously recovering its charge for nighttime or poor-weather operation. Commander Zero’s Starlink test is a particularly good practical demonstration of that concept.

For amateur radio and emergency-preparedness purposes, that opens some interesting possibilities: remote communications sites, temporary internet service, portable radio operations, battery charging, Meshtastic equipment, routers and other low-to-moderate power loads could potentially be operated for very long periods with an appropriately sized battery and solar array.

Portable power stations have evolved quite a bit in only the last two or three years. The capability that helped push me toward Goal Zero when I bought our storm-shelter system is becoming much more common, and based on this test the current Jackery offering appears to be considerably more capable and refined than what I remember from the earlier generations.

73

Phillip Beall (W5EBC)

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