Yep, the Zachtek will take care of itself if there's ever a power loss, and that's pretty handy. I still don't have climate control with my new system. It's not as cold here (Eastern Shore of Maryland) as up there, but the battery cutting out in the cold is still a concern. I have a LifePo battery with a self-heating feature that, in theory, will keep my WSPR (K3WRG) and Kiwis (W3ENR) going through the worst of the winter here. But that's still theoretical. Haven't actually done it yet!

I recently decided to also power my Kiwis with solar, so I scaled my system up to a much larger one. The approach above, though, generally worked. The weakness was my panel. If I transmitted on too many bands too frequently I would run out of power, especially at night after dark winter days. If you don't mind occasionally going off the air, the above setup works. (I had it in operation for about 10 months.) If you want to be on the air 24/7, I would recommend going ahead and getting a larger (40-50w maybe) proper metal framed panel, at least here at about 38 degrees north. That's way over the size one theoretically needs, but if you want to build it and not have to fret over it, that's what I'd do. I know that W9VW is currently experimenting with a minimal-type solar system for a Zachtek, you might keep an eye on him.

What I'm fishing for here are "lessons learned" from anybody that has done this. 10 or 12AWG wire would seem to be sufficient ... I could bury that wire in some conduit, though that would be work and expense ... worth it? I've also yet to find a step down that I'm 100% happy with, and always suspect them of being a little noisy.

My desktop high has run constantly on 3-5 bands for over 10 months now. It has only been down for maintenance and occasional battery exhaustion. Duty cycle not 100%, but pretty high (it varies based on my mood!). The limiting factor in my system has been battery / solar power, which I'm in the process of fixing. (See new post on USB power.)

Hi Mike - Sorry for the late reply. It's basically an inverted vee with "wire" that was originally intended to be for livestock fencing. It's a sort of loose mesh weave on a polyester backer. Some folks scoff at them, but I find that it works quite well. One thing in the way of an update. The little super cheap "10 watt" panel proved to be insufficient to charge the battery enough to keep the transmitter running all night. I wound up dropping another US $35 on a flexible "20 watt" panel with a 5v USB plug on the back so it can be used to directly feed the battery pack. This is really the panel that I should have bought in the first place. It provides more than ample charge to the battery pack so far (two months and counting), and it works quite well held down with heavy velcro on top of my enclosure. Just the occasional need to swipe off bird poop. :-) (And I was able to use the 10 watt panel as a battery tender for a piece of yard equipment over the winter, so it wasn't a lost investment.)

And here is the "final" form of the installation. I found a shelf from a discarded cooler which, when turned upside down, makes a great top for the waterproof box. The solar panel is on top of that. The LMR was too stiff to use in the box, so there's an SMA pigtail. And, as Zach suggested, the GPS antenna is now inside the box. The whole thing sits on top of a log that had so many big knots in it that I didn't have the energy to split it for the fireplace. :-) And the second pic shows how putting it on solar enabled me to get nice and far away from buildings and anything else electric. I think I'll attach the LMR to the log so that it won't potentially stress the connection in the box if somebody or some critter yanks on the cable. It will be more fun once I've passed my general and can turn on the lower bands and then put up a similar system for 80m-20m. :-)

I can't pinpoint the year - I think it was 2013-14 - but I saw the Oden sail into Longyearbyen (Svalbard) (Norway). It was a day or two before I left, in the fall. I have a strange job that includes agriculture and while they don't grow a damn thing north of the Arctic circle, there is a gene bank there, buried deep in the cold mountain. It's fuzzy, but they must have been doing some crew changes. I can definitely remember flying back to Oslo with a really big and hairy Swedish guy in the seat beside me, totally dressed in denim, and that he was dipping tobacco. A habit I once had, like a lot a Southern men from the US, but which some of us give up earlier!