I have been struggling with power AND cellular issues, so I’ve been doing a little troubleshooting, lately.  On the solar power issue, I’ve resolved that.

Somehow or another, although my dog sitter denies ANY involvement whatsoever – really, no one else was here, using power, or opening up the power unit – but in any event, somehow or another, my battery was run down to 9 v. not enough to run the inverter or the charge control.  When I returned home from Quartzite, the power switch to the PV panels was turned off, so no charging from the sun the whole time I was gone, or just about anyway.  It was on when I left.  I got an expensive high zoot 6-12-24 v. battery charger that is damn smart, as well as expensive.  Today we put it on the solar battery for four hours and got it charged up enough to run the inverter and charge control, so now I am running the gennie to run and charge the solar unit, so my house is on 24 hour power again.  That is really nice.  I had brought out all my back-ups – candles, oil lamps and battery operated lights, yesterday.  I put them all away today.

As to the cellular booster, I asked Rock Knocker to rotate it, as I could see it was not pointing in the right direction.  That’s when we discovered that coaxial cable connecting the outdoor antenna to the indoor box, which then connects up to the indoor antenna, was completely severed through.  Lord only knows when that happened – which wind storm or whatever.  That certainly explains my internet problems!  Anyway, now it is only a matter of going to Radio Shack or similar to see about getting a new connector.  Rock Knocker says a whole new 50′ length of coaxial, but I seem to recall there is a connector that can simply be screwed on to the old piece of coaxial.  If I could surf the Internet, I’m sure I could find it.

So, one system down and one to go.  Then I have photos of the snow Friday, new Missy photos and stories, and the usual tales from the top of my mountain, where life is always interesting!