[Hallicrafters] BA's at Field Day

[Paul Kraemer]

Did anyone happen to measure the line voltage with a TRUE RMS voltmeter? Now 
that would be an interesting piece of information. Right along with a scope 
trace of the waveform.
Paul K0UYA
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <anchor at ec.rr.com>
To: "Charlie" <pincon at erols.com>
Cc: <radiocompass at yahoo.com>; <hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 1:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Hallicrafters] BA's at Field Day


> HI folks,
>  Yes, it would be nice to know what size gen it was, Mike.  I know the 
> smaller, 1 & 2kw "Japanese" units are actually a LV, 12v maybe, DC 
> generator, and use an invertor to go to 120vac.  Thus the waveform could 
> be absolutely terrible for transformer operated equipment.
> 73,
> Al, W8UT
>  (from remote, intermittent, access for a few days)
>
> ---- Charlie <pincon at erols.com> wrote:
>> Hello Mike.
>>
>> There are many different series of Honda generators.  I'd be very curious 
>> to
>> know the model number of the one you were using.   If you don't know, 
>> what
>> is it's approximate output rating and age?  I have an older 6500 watt 
>> Honda
>> I use for the whole house where the waveform looks OK.  I do get a little
>> output variation when the load on one side of the 120 V line gets too
>> unbalanced.   Some of the newer designs actually have a sine wave 
>> generator
>> output.  Their regulation,  both frequency and Voltage is supposed to be
>> quite good.
>>
>> 73' Charlie k3ICH
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Mike Everette" <radiocompass at yahoo.com>
>> To: "List Boatanchors" <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>; "List 
>> Hallicrafters"
>> <hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net>; "Mark K3MSB" <mark.k3msb at gmail.com>
>> Sent: Monday, June 30, 2008 12:29 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Hallicrafters] BA's at Field Day
>>
>>
>> >I took my recently-restored National HRO receiver and a WRL Globe Scout
>> >65A/Heathkit VF-1 combo to work CW on 80 and 40 meters.
>> >
>> > And I learned a valuable lesson.
>> >
>> > BE CAREFUL with BA's around generators.
>> >
>> > The generator we used had some sort of problem.  Nobody had a line
>> > frequency meter and I suspect the gen-set could have been running slow.
>> > The voltage output was OK, but the frequency could have been off.  Or, 
>> > it
>> > may have had a some kind of phase problem.  That is, it nay have been
>> > generating more than one waveform resulting in a much higher peak 
>> > voltage
>> > output.  My AC voltmeter (never leave home without it) "said" 125 volts
>> > was coming down the #12 gauge line, but I'm not so sure that was a true
>> > reading.
>> >
>> > SOMETHING was REAL wrong.
>> >
>> > At any rate, I came real close to cooking off the power transformer in 
>> > the
>> > HRO, as well as that in the transmitter, after a couple of hours in
>> > operation.  The HRO power supply case was EXTREMELY hot and remained so
>> > for
>> > several hours after shut-down; fortunately this was a mil-spec supply
>> > instead of the usual "doghouse" unit which would have never survived. 
>> > I
>> > don't think the transmitter was damaged, but am not yet sure.
>> >
>> > The other guys with the super-zot-ray SDR Ikensu rice-burner gear
>> > attributed their power-supply heating to the 97-degree ambient
>> > temperature.  Uh-huh....
>> >
>> > I shut my stuff completely down after discovering this and didn't get 
>> > back
>> > on the air, much to the disappointment of a number of folks in the club
>> > who were looking for me to "make" their club's score on CW -- there are 
>> > no
>> > other CW ops in this crowd (!!!) though several claim to "want to learn
>> > code."
>> >
>> > I have been told that Honda generators are nototious for phase 
>> > problems.
>> > One of the generators we had was a Honda; I'm not sure what the other 
>> > one
>> > was.
>> >
>> > BE WARNED.
>> >
>> > 73
>> >
>> > Mike
>> > WA4DLF
>> >
> ______________________________________________________________