After the PIC24 redesign, it has been my wish to use the realtime clock so that the reports to the serial port can be made with the correct time. Unfortunately when the processor loses power, the clock stops and the time is reset.
To get around this, I figured that I would use a battery and the low power characteristics of the microcontroller. When I designed the board I added the battery holder for a CR2032 and an LTC4411 from Analog/Linear to manage the switching between the power sources.