Jacking around

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Previously, when using the Starlink up at the Beta Site I have either used a small battery backup brick, or I’ve used an adaptor that lets me use my Milwaukee M18 batteries that power my tools. But, both of those did not really have an option for recharging up there. Once the batteries were drained, it was switch to another battery and take the depleted one back to the house to recharge. What to do?

CostCo was selling this for $200 off, bring my price to $599. (No longer on sale at CostCo, but on sale at Amazon for $100 off but comes with 200w panel instead of 100w). I did a bit of research online and saw that this was the cheapest price out there for this particular device. It came with a 100watt panel to recharge, so there was the option of recharging it up at the Beta Site rather than having to return to town to recharge. Ok, I’ll take chance with it.

The system comes with a 100w panel, but I decided to go ahead and pick up the 200w panel as well. Not cheap, but I wanted every advantage possible. The system has two inputs for panels, or you can buy an additional cable (which I did) that allows you to add panels in serial (daisy chaining) if they are panels of the same wattage. So, putting a 200w and 100w on the same cable is a no-no. I plugged the 200w panel into one input jack, and the 100w into the other input jack…no prob.

Like most electronics these days, the Jackery has an app for your phone. I found this to be an immensely interesting feature. Using the app, I linked the system to my house wireless network. Having done this, I could now, from anywhere with internet, see battery usage, charging rate, hours to charge, hours remaining, turn off the charging outputs to any devices I was charging, etc. This opens up some tremendous possibilities, which I’ll cover shortly.

The battery came completely charged, so I needed to discharge the battery so I could start documenting how well the panels worked to recharge it. Unfortunately, all I had around that needed charging were some flashlights and tool batteries. I got the battery down to about 89% before it was time to head to the Beta Site.

Got up to the Beta Site and the weather was mostly clear with a few clouds here and there. The sun went behind the clouds every so often, but most of the time it was direct late morning sunlight. I Laid out both panels and hooked them up.

As I mentioned, the app for the Jackery needs internet to send the info to your phone. So…I brought out the StarLink and fired it up. What was the draw of the StarLink versus the input from the panels? Lets go to the app:

So thats the data Im being shown when the StarLink is running. Now, at that moment Im not really doing anything internet-heavy except some texting. But even when it was a little more intensive, it was in the 24-34w range in terms of usage. Meanwhile, the panels are throwing 242w into the battery. In short, I’m using the battery up slower than the panels are refilling it. So, as long as the sun is shining, I can internet as much as I want and the battery will get more charged rather than less. But man does not live on internet alone. Lets see what happens when I throw a 12v DC Milwaukee battery charger on there and throw on a battery that needs charging and run the internet at the same time.

Note the times. While using the internet and charging the Milwaukee M18 battery, the system still charged itself up to 100~%. Even when the sun went behind a cloud there was enough input to offset the internet usage.

My anticipated usage for this sort of package is very simple: run the internet and recharge the things that need recharging (camera batts, tool batts, flashlightg batts, etc.) And for that usage, this seems to be a good way to go.

Here’s the really interesting part, though…With no recharging, this thing will run the internet for 30-37 hours. We saw that the internet was using 1/10th of the power that was coming into the system, so, as I see it, that means one hour of charging gives you ten hours internet. So, its entirely possible that with this set up I might be able to leave things runnig 24/7…which means internet live feed may be possible. This interest me greatly. That would open the possibility for a remote rover.


Now that would be something cool!

But back to the job at hand… So I’ve had one weekend of playing with the Jackery. I’ve left it up at the Beta Site in the cargo container. When Im back up there in two weeks I’ll see if there was any measurable self-discharge. Even if there was, I’m convince that a half hour with both panels in place will top that tank right off.

SO, my overall impression so far is good. But, a new broom sweeps clean. Be interesting to see how this holds up over the next year or so. As I said, my very minimalist meeds seem to be met by this setup but those needs won’t be minimal forever. But until such time as I need a more comprehensive, expensive, purpose-built, battery-and-panel-heavy setup I think this might carry me through until then. So, overall: recommend.

Bear with me on this….

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So yesterday I set up a game camera over the Dead Thing to see what happens. What happens is I have about 40 pictures of a fat bear eating and sleeping:

And I’m not 100% certain, but I believe a different bear decided to check out the conex:

Bear season opens in three weeks. I’m buying a tag ‘just in case’.

A mystery solved

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I just installed the new game camera Thursday. Between then and this morning this is whats taken place on that one camera:

Bobcat?

Why so busy?????

When I was up there Thursday I noticed a weird smell near the cargo container area. It reminded me of the zoo. My first thought was that one of the container delivery guys had taken a dump in the woods. The more I thought about it, I figured I had rolled through some cow patties on the way up there and thats what I was smelling. Satisfied that was the source, I didnt give it any more brainpower.

Rolled in there early this morning and as I puled up several large birds took to the air. “Somethings not right”, I said. A couple turkey buzzards took off. “Something’s dead”, I said. Got out of the vehicle and caught that smell again. Now I knew what it was. Somewhere around there was a dead…thing. An animal, most likely although I wouldnt be too surprised to find a dead human. Stuff happens.

Donned my 10mm, grabbed the AK and descended into the brush. I followed the smell and it got way stronger. I flipped the safety off the AK just in case, and found this poor bastard:

That upper jaw I’m poking with the AK had all sortsa fresh blood around it…grass was still red with the vibrancy. And more than a few mounds of what was quite obviously bear poop. I think I figured out why the sudden influx of predators. So, now that I know theres a dead animal there that the bears and lions are munching on, what should my course of action be?

Mount a game camera over it, of course! Should be some very interesting pics coming from that!

So one mystery solved. Fall bear season opens in three weeks. I was on the fence about whether to ruin a bruin or let them be. Might buy a tag ‘just in case’.

Enjoy the pics, guys. And, for those curious, container leveling went okay but it was a bit of work. I’ll have a post about that at some point

The right to bear arms…against bears

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So, went up to the Beta Site after work to check out the new cargo container. They did a good job and even levelled it as best they could. However, I still need to jack it up and get some concrete blocks under it because I want it higher off the ground. That’ll be something to do tomorrow. While I was up there, I also wanted to put in some more game cameras for security for the new container and to record the increased traffic of predators up there.

This morning, I was awoken to my phone alerting me that there was activity and pictures were available. Allow me to sum it up with this:

Yeah, it was a bear-centric 24 hours. First of all, this morning gave me this bruin:

That light in the background is the flash going off from the other game cam I set up there yesterday. The bear in the picture? Did not come alone:

That’s right, guys. Its a family affair up there. Whats that you say? You wish there were better pictures? No problem, man…here you go:

Mom and cub? That moves the needle a little bit on the threat-o-meter. It’s a veritable Wild Kingdom up there.

Its looking like my larger security threat is the bears rather than humans (for now). Wasn’t expecting that. I have a couple game cam pics here that show me in the truck putting up the game cams….and the previous pic shows the bears walking through seven minutes earlier.

I’m not going to call it a bear problem, but its certainly a ‘bear diverse’ area.

An interesting side note…on the way back from dinner last night I managed to get pulled over by some young buck on the police department. (Failure to signal for the right turn at the light, I am told.) Mind you, at the moment I had a Winchester 1200 and an AK sitting behind my seat, and the big Glock 10mm sitting on the dashboard. He asks for my license and proof of insurance. No problem, I say, and hand over the license. Insurance, he asks? Thats gonna take a sec, I gotta dig around for it, I reply. He says “Yeah, theres a lot of guns here I don’t think I want you digging around in there.”. My response? “Dude, there is a shitload of guns in this truck.” Got off with a warning. I wonder if he’ll mention the interaction to some of the older officers there who will say “Oh him? He’s always like that.” Good times.

Paratus approaches!

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Paratus is approaching, guys! In fact, at this point it is less than a month away.This year Paratus falls on September 18, 2026.

You can read all about Paratus, the holiday by and for survivalists, here at the Paratus FAQ.

This will be my first Paratus with the Beta Site. So…if you guys wanna get your buddy Zero a nice Paratus gift this year, well, an Amazon gift card code will go a long way to defraying the cost of power tools, sentry guns, and Swiss Navy.

I’ll be getting this years Paratus cards shortly and its not too late to get your name on the list. How do you do that? As deatailed:

How do I get on the Paratus card list?

It’s pretty simple and blatantly selfish. If you’ve signed up at Patreon, sent me a gift of any kind, are someone I know ‘in real life’, are an ‘internet friend’ with whom I’ve exchanged many emails, or otherwise have interacted with me on more than a casual basis…and you’ve provided an address…you’ll get on the list.

Simply emailing or commenting with your address and “Please send me a Paratus card” will not work.

A collection of previous Paratus cards can be found at the Paratus FAQ.

Candid Camera XII

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Yogi showed up 90 minutes after I was standing in that same spot. My two greatest threats up there are humans and griz, in that order. Black bears bears of color aren’t exactly harmless but I put the risk of going mano-a-bearo way down on the list. Sure, I won’t turn my back on one but I’d bet if I yelled and waved my arms at him he’d run like the wind. And if not….:::shrug:::…things happen.

 

Filtering

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So one of the the issues at the Beta Site is that to pull water from the creek you have to, obviously, drop one end of a suction hose into the creek to allow the pump to pull water in. Creeks are, by their very nature, rather open to the environment and get all sorts crap in them…dust, dirt, small bugs, pine needles, etc, etc. And thats in addition the stuff thats on the bottom of the creek…dirt, silt, degraded organic matter of all sorts, etc. Sucking anything up into your pump that is not water is usually a bad idea. Some stuff you can get away with if its small enough, but you really want to keep the pine needles and dead bugs outta the impellors. Pretty much any plumbing supply store will sell you one of these to help keep crap out of your intake:

But thats still a bit coarse. And I need to keep as much crap out of that water as possible so I don’t gum up the internals on the water heater. So, whats an effective solution I can DIY while standing in the plumbing section of the store? The answer, as it turned out, was this:

Its an inline filter used for irrigation systems. Unscrew the bulbuous part and theres a 75 micron screen in there. As it turns out, Rain Bird also sells screens of other size. Obviously this is not something that makes water potable…its for filtering solids, not Giardia and other biologics. So I hooked this up to one end of my intake hose and tried it out. Worked awesome. When I checked the filter there was plenty of small tiny bits of sediment and gunk that the filter had kept out of my pump and, by extension, out of my water tank. For fun, I also put one on the output hose from my storage tank so that if there is anythign that works its way into the tank, it doesnt get transferred into anything I don’t want it in.

Cost? Shoot, man…the filter and a couple 3/4 adaptors was less than twenty bucks. I decided to buy the next larger size, meant for 1″ pipe, and use a couple 1″-to-3/4″ adaptors to give myself a larger setup so flow wouldnt be restricted if things got muddy.

TPIWWP, so:

Its important to note that the 3/4″ thread on the filter is not the same as the 3/4 thread on your garden hose. You’ll need a 3/4fpt to 3/4fht adaptor (the brass thing in the picture) to get them to work together and you can find that easily in the plumbing section.

Its worked out quite well for me and I keep a couple spares in the box with the transfer pump. The more crap I can keep out of the water storage tank, the less frequently I need to powerwash it’s interior with bleach.

Again, this is not something that turns untreated water into drinkable water. That should be pretty obvious. But it definitely helps when its time to purify and treat water.