Hello Chuck, I think I may have the same genset you have as mine was put into service in the mid 80's. My genset runs off of a 5ft tall propane cylinder which holds about 80lbs of fuel, hard to remember as I haven't needed to fill it since the 90's.
If you have easy access to your genset you could use a simple heating blanket to keep your genset warm or use a homemade heat sink with a resistor loaded up to keep the main body warm. Since my site is 20 some miles away I use a homemade resistor/heatsink attached to the main block to keep mine warm to start on a thermister. Although my genset has a self-starter onboard when the AC mains fail to keep the repeater batteries fully charged. I use a bank of 10 each group 31 Optima batteries in combination to the genset to keep all the repeaters running off battery. Actually all the repeaters run on battery from the start so we have no switching issues, just need to keep the battery bank charged either from AC or genset. Group 31 Deep cycle battery: "http://www.optimabatteries.com/publish/optima/americas0/en/config/product_info/commercial.html" Hope this helps. Regards, Barry n6cid --- Chuck Kelsey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Guys, > > I have a 5KW natural gas generator at my house to > serve as backup power > to not only the house, but it keeps a repeater and > my ham shack up and > running. > > During cold weather, it doesn't like to start > (manual start, pull > cord). I fund that if I place a halogen work light > pointed at it for > about 10 minutes, it warms it up enough so it will > start OK. > > My question is -- does anyone know of a small engine > block heater out > there? I've done Google searches and don't really > find anything > worthwhile. No, I don't what to use a light bulb. I > want something > that's safe, economical to operate and UL approved. > > Chuck > WB2EDV > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Repeater-Builder/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/