[Boatanchors] power problems?

[Eugene Hertz]

Hello all,

I've spent the last 2 years working to get my first amateur station set up in my house. The station is almost 100% hollow state gear such as central electronics 100V transmitter, collins 51J4 receiver, SP600, M28 teletype machines.  I finally have everything interconnected, I have an antenna up and it would seem I am ready to get on the air to make my first QSO ever!

I now discover, I have a power problem in the shack (2nd floor spare bedroom).  Seems all this hollow-state gear is very sensitive to line voltage.  I measured my voltage and it can easily vary from 108V (RMS) to 121V (RMS).  Seems when the line voltage varies, everything changes frequency -- my transmitter, my receivers, everything! 

To be more accurate, certainly the more gear I have on the more the voltage drops, but that would be ok as long as it was stable. Problem seems to be that appliances and the well-pump (well water) kicking on and off cause the voltage to be unstable. All lights in my house dim for an instant when the pump kicks in. Also, keying the transmitter will cause the voltage to change which causes a changing cw note. For example, monitoring my transmitted CW frequency can vary 200-300 Hz.  Now an operator on the other side could probably deal with that, but if I use RTTY at 170 hz shift, I doubt the receiving TU could adjust 200-300hz all within 20 seconds of keying.

One solution ($$$$$) might be to run a new circuit to the shack. But I still think my well pump will cause problems. Does anyone know of a device that can regulate the voltage to my transmitter and receiver to keep a good 120vac? Or anything that is stable? I always thought that was what regulator tubes are for, but perhaps they are only regulating over-voltage conditions, not under-voltage.

Does anyone have any suggestions? In the end, I might have to run a new circuit, but it still may have problems when the well pump kicks in.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. I hate the thought of having gotten this far in my early ham career to have something like this derail my efforts. Of course, I could go solid state, but what fun would that be?

I have cross-posted this question, so please reply direct or only to the list to which you belong.
Thanks!
Eugene (kc2nwg-someday!)