[R-390] Standy or Off?

[Michael Murphy]

Cecil,

My vote is for OFF. Put 1 in the OFF column. Thanks.

OK here's the beef..
Why cook your radio? I do not use any of my radio gear enough to justify
leaving anything ON. Why waste the power? Everything including the test gear
gets turned OFF. Same goes for all three computers at the house and my work
machine. I have been hearing this "always on" stuff for years but for me,
OFF means less heat and component aging. If you want to reduce the POWER ON
stress, which is the culprit that I think we are talking about, why not make
the standby switch turn on only the filaments or better yet incorporate a
timer relay that turns on the filaments for 2 minutes before applying the MV
and HV. I made such a timer for the ART-13 power supply as a gimmick
circuit. Not much to it; a relay, diode, cap and a resistor. The silly
circuit has worked beyond my expectations.The 813 and two 811's which I run
at 1550 V have been holding up since I put it on the air in 87. I like fans
too.

Mike Murphy WB2UID


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cecil Acuff" <chacuff at cableone.net>
To: "charles bolland" <ka4prf at peoplepc.com>; <r-390 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2005 10:20 PM
Subject: Re: [R-390] Standy or Off?


> Charles,
>
>         Standby is not recommended the unloaded power supply voltage rises
> to dangerous levels due to our line voltage being higher today than it was
> back in the 50's.
>
> I personally think that leaving the set on is probably best.  Powering it
on
> and off subjects the power supply to stresses each time it's powered up
and
> the thermal cycling takes it's toll as well.  The company I work for has
> about 1000 desktop PC.s and they have published a recommendation to all
> employees that those PC's should be left on 24/7 because lower failure
rates
> have been documented in machines that are not electrically and thermally
> cycled.  I would think that would carry over to other electronic devices
as
> well.
>
> The 390 series was designed to run 24/7 and if you don't mind the cost of
> electricity that's what I would recommend.
>
> As far as your ballast tube failures....The ballast tube undergoes it's
most
> stress at power up.  After that it should only have a barely perceivable
> glow.  If it's brighter than that during run you may have a problem with
one
> of the tubes it regulates.  Also what is your line voltage...it may be
> excessively high.  You may want to invest in a variac and set the line
> voltage to 115...everything will last longer that way....
>
> Cecil...
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "charles bolland" <ka4prf at peoplepc.com>
> To: <r-390 at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2005 6:54 PM
> Subject: [R-390] Standy or Off?
>
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I've burnt out a couple of Ballast tubes over the months and I am a
little
> > "gun" shy now.  I don't want to ware out other tubes in my set, so I am
> > wondering which will prolong the life of any tubes in my receiver best
of
> > the three following options?
> >
> > 1. Completely off when not in use - thinking about turning the set on
and
> > off all of the time.
> > 2. Standby when not in use - thinking some tube still burning all of the
> > time.
> > 3. On when not in use - thinking all of the tubes are hot all of the
time.
> >
> > Any comments will be appreciated.
> >
> > Chuck
> >
> >
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