[Ham-Mac] Mac crashes on transmit or tune... any ideas?

[Chris Smolinski]

>All,
>
>My Power Mac G4 (quicksilver?) tower goes into sleep, or shuts down, 
>or restarts nearly every time I transmit on my Yaesu FT-897. For 
>that matter, even when I hit tune on the AT-897 tuner in full power 
>the first seconds of High VSWR can blow out the mac.
>
>The rig is about 5 feet from the CPU and monitor. I have a zap 
>checker, it does show some RF in the room on transmit, but judging 
>by the sensitivity on the zapchecker, not really much. I traced the 
>leads, no obvious leaks... just the rig itself and the mic light the 
>meter.
>
>Needless to say, this makes it difficult to use MacLoggerDX if the 
>Mac crashes everytime I transmit! Hate to say this but my Windows 
>laptop doesn't have this affect, neither does my Mac laptop, but the 
>tower is really what I'd much rather use if I can work out this 
>problem.
>
>Is this a normal happening with an 897 and a computer? Any 
>suggestion or ideas on shielding the Mac, or any other solution at 
>all?

You're getting RF into your shack. I've never had problems with 
transmitting causing computers to crash or restart, etc. My guess, 
without knowing your setup, is RF from the coax shield radiating. You 
may also have a poor/inductive ground. I think your statement of high 
SWR causing problems is a clue.

Describe your setup in full detail.

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Chris Smolinski
Black Cat Systems
http://www.blackcatsystems.com