[R-390] Power Cords on eBay

[Barry Hauser]

Truth be told, there are an awful lot of grounded outlets that aren't 
grounded or not grounded well enough.  My place was built in the early 
50's -- complete with 60 Amp service -- four 15 A glass fuses.  Two 
conductor "Romex" throughout.

Of course, the old two-conductor outlets wear out and there's nothing but 
grounded ones available as replacements.  Wall plate screw?  "Gem box"? 
Forget it.

The service was upgraded two or three times and eventually the kludge of 
separate fuseboxes was replaced by one big fuse panel -- 200 Amp service. 
Any new wiring is grounded, but upgrade the old?  Quite a tall order --  
can't use the old Romex to pull through -- it's stapled and trapped all 
along the way.  Run new?  - Have to tear up the walls -- they are full of 
"cats" -- and not the white meat meow kind.  (16" horizontal 2 X 4's between 
the studs).

So, fact is, if you have to run separate grounds anyway, and that ground lug 
on the power plug wouldn't do anything anyhow ... no big deal if it's a two 
wire cordset with a separate ground-wire -- the ground wire can go to lug 
attached to a good outlet strip and the 3-prong outlet strip into a good 
grounded outlet.  Or, if the ground's no good on the outlet, I suppose a 
separate ground line.

The builing I rent for my business is not much better.  Commercial code here 
calls for only two-conductor BX cable (armored).  The metal jacket on the BX 
clamps to the Gem boxes -- supposed to be metal not plastic here.  Then the 
ground lug in the receptacle is connected by means of the mounting tabs on 
the receptacles.  Of course, BX armor is made of one of the most conductive 
metals known to Man, the clamps in the Gem boxes are gold plated and the 
screws on the receptacle tabs never get loose.  Uh..huhhhh.

It's a funny thing.  The Earth is the biggest thing we got going -- 24K 
milies in circumference -- plenty of it wherever you go (OK a lot of it is 
under water), but when you want a good chunk of it hooked up to the other 
end of a piece of wire ... you have to drive a copper clad stake 10 feet 
into it -- and keep it wet.

Back in the 50's they didn't have the same ideas about grounded power cord 
sets.  Of course, hot chassis were also popular in the spirit of "we don' 
need no steenking transformers".

Barry




----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Flowertime01 at wmconnect.com>
To: <R-390 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, October 07, 2005 7:31 PM
Subject: Re: [R-390] Power Cords on eBay


> Jack, AE7DX
>
> Mostly we just put a three wire cord on the receivers. Bond the green wire 
> to
> the receiver frame. likely with one of the screws used to hold the cover
> plate over the hot post where the white and black wire get attached. Use a 
> meter
> and determine which wire goes to the off/on switch and put the black wire 
> to it.
>
> Most of us do not use GFI breakers as these get upset with the leakage
> currents.
>
> The real task is to ensure the third wire in the power receptacle really 
> goes
> to ground and will hold the chassis close enough to ground so that when 
> you
> grab a knob you do not get bite. This works OK on receive and on the 
> bench. If
> you transmit, you better have a much better ground than the return line to 
> who
> knows where on the power cord. Back when, we accepted nothing was ground. 
> You
> bonded your receiver with a nice chunk of 1/4 braid. On the bench, in the
> rack, in the van, You always went looking for the ground before you went 
> looking
> for power. You can drag the generator to the ground rod, but you cannot 
> always
> get a ground rod in the ground. Find the ground first.
>
> Roger KC6TRU (new offer follows)
>
> Thanks to everyone who responded...I do have a '390A and it'll take more
> than $20.00 plus shipping to pry it out of my hands :>)
> ------------------------
> OK, I'll offer $25.00 and come pick it up to save you the trouble of 
> getting
> it packed.
>
> Roger.
>
>
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