[Johnson] Fuse Blowing Ranger solved

[Dave Maples]

All: I have to agree with Gary wholeheartedly.  I also absolutely agree with
ditching the fused plug and putting a standard 3-wire cord on the unit.

As was pointed out, the very fact that you were able to recover the unit
simply by rotating the line cord indicates that something is very wrong.
I'd bet on a blown bypass capacitor from the AC line.  The fact that you
were able to "correct" the problem shows what a horribly unsafe system that
is.

Go a step further.  Suppose you sell the unit (forgetting the issue) and the
next person doesn't happen to ground the set before they plug it in, and
rotate the plug the other way so that the hot AC line is now on the chassis.
They touch it and get fried.  Now how do you feel?

In my Valiant I was able to sneak a standard AGC chassis-mount fuse between
one of the transformers and the rear panel of the unit (misses the
transformer bell by about 1/4" or so) and was able to put a 3-wire cord on
the unit without messing up any of the RF suppression equipment.  If the
Ranger is arranged anything like the same way that's a cheap safety upgrade
that you won't regret.  Even if it's not I suspect that there's another way
to get to the same place.

Vintage is vintage, and original is original, but stupid is stupid.  That
design was stupid factorial.

I have the fused plug from my Valiant downstairs, and was thinking about
selling it on Ebay for someone who just had to have one.  Not any more,
after reading this.  Next time I'm in the basement I'm going to get a hammer
and obliterate it, and put the pieces in the wastebin.

Dave WB4FUR

-----Original Message-----
From: johnson-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:johnson-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of Gary Schafer
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 10:32 AM
To: 'John King'; Johnson at mailman.qth.net
Subject: RE: [Johnson] Fuse Blowing Ranger solved


I can tell you for a fact, that if all you did was reverse the line plug and
now it works, you still have problems. Very serious problems!!

It should not blow a fuse no matter which way the plug is plugged in.

Something on one side of the line has a dead short to the chassis. I would
fix it before plugging it in again as if you don't happen to have the
chassis connected to some ground you will get shocked.

73
Gary  K4FMX

> -----Original Message-----
> From: johnson-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:johnson-
> bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of John King
> Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 11:40 PM
> To: Johnson at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: [Johnson] Fuse Blowing Ranger solved
>
> Thanks to Fern Rivard, I have the Ranger running and
> it no longer blows fuses. Fern suggested that the
> original power plug was not polarized and that the
> fuse in the plug was blowing because the plug was
> being plugged into outlet with wrong polarity.
>
> Thanks to all who made suggestions and your input is
> certainly appreciated. 73, John, K5PGW
>
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