[Lowfer] GFCI trips when transmitting on 2200M
Dexter McIntyre W4DEX
dexter.mc at gmail.com
Fri Dec 7 09:53:04 EST 2012
My AC power meter and primary AC panel box is located less than ten feet
from my LF coil and vertical wire. I've never had a problem with the
ground fault breakers in that box tripping when transmitting on 137
kHz. That is until I placed some Christmas lights a bit over one
hundred feet from the other end of the house from where the panel box is
located. The lights are powered with 125 feet of cable laying on the
ground. The RF return current this cable is carrying measures just a
few milliamps, apparently just enough to occasionally trip the breaker.
Attaching multiple clamp on chokes around the cable made on difference.
The GFCI was installed 25 years ago. I just read that newer ones are
much better at preventing false tripping due to RF. I could just
replace the breaker but being a tight wad I had rather find a cure for
this temporary problem rather than to replace a working breaker.
Any thoughts about what to try next?
Dex
Hummm......I may try an isolation transformer. The lights are LED and
operate at only 16 watts for 250 C9 size bulbs.
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