Well bit the bullet and purchased a MEP006A ex-military generator. Waiting on paperwork to go actually pick it up but from the photo’s and my dad’s inspection…should be a pretty nice unit!
MEP-006A Generator iz Mine!
Infrastructure
Generator
Looking a few ex-military generators…I love recycling old stuff!
MEP-006A model…some are trailer mounted, some aren’t. The air-brake requirement for the trailer mounted ones would be a bit challenging since the Unimog (pintle hitch) doesn’t have air-assist brakes. At 5000+ lbs w/ trailer I’d like to be able to stop it 🙂
The alternative is skid mounted units at about 4100-4300lbs. Good for 60kW and turbocharged diesel powered.
Good for events, electricity experiments, or powering that toy in the middle of nowhere 🙂
Infrastructure win!
Tower, is mine…among other things!
So, couple weeks ago replaced the starter in the ex-security guard’s Ranger pickup, and fixed some wiring snafu in the engine compartment (was loosing power to ECU/coil pack). The tower is now mine. 🙂
Another score came about after some scrap guys were cutting through conduit with a reciprocating saw and blew the blade off their saw. Since the whole site has been powered down to prevent injury to the scrappers, this came at a bit of a surprise to the guys. Turns out there was two 120VDC battery banks placed throughout the mill to power emergency lighting and signs.
The trade? Disable the battery systems (broke them down to about 30V packs) so that they could safely be moved off the premises…into my waiting hands 🙂 So I scored about 1500-1900lbs in sealed lead acid batteries…basically brand new. And a charger (120VDC out). Sounds like an electric car project in the making!
More later 🙂
Tower?
So, an opportunity has recently presented itself.
I have had a 32ft narrow gauge tower in the air since 2001 holding up some various Ham Radio antenna (3-element 10/15/20m beam + rotator & a 20/40/80m home-brew trap wire antenna). It is a tower that requires guy-wires when cranked up, and is not something I REALLY want to move anywhere. Plus it is ~17ft collapsed.
I was offered, in trade for some automotive work, what I estimate at being a 40-45ft crank up potentially self supporting aluminium tower. No idea what it was doing in its previous life…but it is down, on the ground, ready to go. Yay!
I am thinking this, combined with some vehicle mounting, and a nice UHF folded dipole antenna, can give me a pretty nice setup for the UHF repeater toy I just acquired. Command vehicle here I come.
I still want a pneumatic or hydraulic cylinder type tower for the Unimog 🙂