[R-390] Voltage regulation and vintage equipment

[Tim Shoppa]

I got home, after a very very hot day yesterday (102, which is hot
for here!), and turned on many of my old radios. Lots and lots
of atmospheric noise although no thunderstorms broke in my
neighborhood.

Noticed that for some unknown reason, few to none of the
neon bulbs on the equipment was lit.

Stuck my voltmeter probes into the wall socket, was getting 98VAC.

Found out this morning that the utilities had purposefully cut back
on voltages delivered to limit power demand.

Of course many modern computers and other power supplies will
in fact suck more current as their input voltage drops.

The 390A's, no neons in them, the good old #328's lit up fine although
in retrospect I shouldn't have been contributing to the brownout!

Tim.