[Boatanchors] power problems?

[w7fe]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eugene Hertz" <ehertz at tcaf.org>
To: <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>; <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 12:42 PM
Subject: [Boatanchors] power problems?


Hello all,

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.


>>>>>  Look at Home Depot or an electrical supply  house for a "soft start" 
>>>>> module, commonly used with Heat Pumps here in the Southwest to extend 
>>>>> compressor life.  These units will reduce the big current 
>>>>> surge/voltage drop when starting your pump or other motor driven 
>>>>> devices.


Also, keying the transmitter will cause the voltage to change which causes a 
changing cw note.

>>>>>  I have added capacity in my second floor shack by running a 12 AWG 25 
>>>>> ft extension cord out the window and down to an outside outlet (which 
>>>>> is on a different circuit than the second floor).  It turns out that 
>>>>> it's on the same circuit as the master bedroom on the first floor, so 
>>>>> the XYL gets a little testy when her lights flicker when I'm using the 
>>>>> 30L-1 on that circuit, but she's getting used to it.....

>>>>> Certainly the more elegant solution is to go ahead and run a separate 
>>>>> circuit to the shack, directly from the breaker box.  If it's not too 
>>>>> far, oversize the wire by one step,  i.e. 12 AWG for a 15A circuit or 
>>>>> 10 AWG for a 20A circuit. If it's more than about 30 feet, perhaps 
>>>>> oversize 2X.  Heck, if you're gonna go to that trouble, you might as 
>>>>> well put in a 240 line and a separate little breaker box in the shack 
>>>>> to give you a both 120 and 240V.  You WILL be needing the capacity to 
>>>>> fire up a Thunderbolt or a 30S-1 eventually, won't you?   <:>))


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?

>>>>>  Some ferroresonance-type line voltage regulators can be found here: 
>>>>> http://www.elect-spec.com/klr_$.htm
They will produce 115V +/- 4% output with down to about 90V input, and 
provide some nice line crud filtering as well.. You could go with a 
relatively low power model and switch it for use on whatever rig or TX/RX 
pair you wish to use.  In other words, you wouldn't necessarily need one 
capable of 15A/1875  watts, just the power required by one rig at a time, 
say the 4A/500W or 8A/1000W models.

73 de Stu W7FE

_______________________________________________
Boatanchors mailing list
Boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/boatanchors
** List Administrator - Duane Fischer, W8DBF/W9WZE **
** For Assistance: dfischer at usol.com **
$$ For vintage radio info, see the HCI web site $$
http://www.w9wze.org