Bob,? Option 3 might work, only if all the repeaters (stations) are under the same ¡°roof¡± by that meaning, the same Club/Org/Owner. If they are not, will all the Clubs work together?? In my experience I¡¯ve noticed different Clubs/orgs don¡¯t always play well in the same sandbox.? This is especially true with governmental agencies around the? State, and County.? From what I¡¯ve noticed they seem to have their own ¡°territories¡± (and egos) and don¡¯t wanna share resources or knowledge. It¡¯s sad thing and the Public or media does not appear (to me) to expose these inefficient ways of spending resources.? Anyway, that¡¯s not relevant to this amateur project but it does display a respective to human nature and what to expect.
For amateur I proposed an antenna combining system (and power supply) at a busy site with multiple amateur groups/repeater and boy, did I get some blowback on that proposal. Each group likes to do their own thing; ¡°tolerates¡± the others (no rock throwing) but hell may freeze over before they would share resources like that. In all fairness some folks don't utilize good standards, such as neatness in wiring, circuit protection and documentation.? I've seen the inside of some cabinets that look like a hornet's nest.
I hope this does not rain on your parade because it¡¯s very good, proactive and productive you are asking for choices.? So to be redundant (which I normally don¡¯t do) go with sharing resources for the good of all. You folks can share costs, technical talents (for backup if someone is sick, etc.) and keep all systems up and running.? You might consider some sort of fault isolation. For example, if someone drops a ¡°wrench¡± across the battery bank.? Things happen; we are human. At the very least fuse/circuit break close to the bank.? I¡¯ve got a few engineering projects on the web site.
The other post mentioned you¡¯d be without 110/220v for a generator switch. That¡¯s called ¡°delay to transfer¡±.? Then when the grid power returns it will happen again.? With my career with the State we used several functions for the APU:
1. Line sense (frequency sometimes and voltage drop). It would "filter" (or ignore) brief glitches.
2. Delay to start (STS).
3. Delay to transfer to ¡°EM¡±. (DTT) This gives the motor time to warm and stabilize a little. Some of those motors were rather old.
4. Delay to transfer to ¡°COM¡± (commercial power) back to the grid.
5. Delay APU shutdown.
When the site would loose power (even right away in the case of icing sparking lines) the whole process would start over.
Most of the equipment was on a battery bank anyway, so the DTT's would not affect the equipment. That would be the microwave gear and the LMR stations.
It was "mission critical" so even a brief outage was not an option.
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Regards, Karl Shoemaker
To contact me, please visit SRG's web site at?
for the current email address.
Karl Shoemaker