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[Amps] 240 vac primary protection..again

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Subject: [Amps] 240 vac primary protection..again
From: "Jim Thomson" <jim.thom@telus.net>
Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2010 03:59:20 -0800
List-post: <amps@contesting.com">mailto:amps@contesting.com>
Carl mentioned about using .01 uf caps  from each  hot leg of the 120/240 line 
to chassis..and tingling. 
That scheme was used on my real old drakes..except that they only had a 2 x 
prong
120 vac plug ! [ caps wired hot to chassis..and  neutral to chassis].  One day 
I had nothing  connected to the
r4c/t4xc....  and got  tingling, when touching the r4c chassis..and external 
grnd  [ another piece 
of gear that was well grnded. ]

If u  re-draw it, there is 2 x .01uf @ 1kv disc ceramic caps in series,  with 
their CT  bonded to chassis.
The 120 vac is dropped across  both of em.   IE:  60 vac  across  each cap.    
That  explains why I measured
60 vac  between  drake chassis....and  external grnd.    In normal operation, 
all the radio  gear chassis's are
bonded via interconnecting coax braids, and also the myriad of phono to phono  
rca connectors on the small 
coax used  for the various functions between the Tx  and RX box's. 

Apparently, per W8JI, IF  .01uf caps are  wired between 120 v hot leg and 
chassis, and also neutral to chassis,
[or between each hot and chassis on a 240 vac input device]... the caps  must 
be  UL rated caps for just that
purpose.    The common garden variety  .01uf  @ 1 kv  disc ceramics  do not cut 
it any longer.  The UL  rated caps
for this transient / RF bypass protection  are  2500 V rated devices. 
Apparently too many fires started with non
UL rated caps..as many would fail shorted.   A similar thing happened with 
garden variety  130 v rated MOV's....
too many house fires.  Modern MOV's  for 120/240 v use, will  have a 3rd lead 
sticking out [offset to one side]
and an internal fuse built into em. 

I see no reason why .01uf  @ 2500 v rated /UL rated bypass caps can't be used 
from each hot leg of the 240 line
to chassis, fused or otherwise, in a typ B+  HV supply.   Then also well grnd 
the chassis of the same B+ supply. 
[either from a  standard 4 x conductor ...'2 x hots, 1 x neutral, and 1 x 
grnd]...or a separate wire from chassis of 
B+ supply to station grnd [SPG], RF deck, etc.  

Now this  should kill  any transient, before it even gets into the primary of 
the plate xfmr, alleviating the need
[or perhaps in addition to]  for a HV  bypass cap  across each leg of a FWB.   
Carl had mentioned about using 
a .0047 uf @ 6/10/15 kv disc ceramic across each leg,  4 in total.  

In the last Orr book,  they used a RC snubber [ which I think was a 100 ohm, 25 
watt ww in series with a .01uf/
.005uf  @ 3/6/10/15 kv rated disc ceramic]... and snubber was wired directly 
across the sec of the plate xfmr. 

I see no reaon why a .01/.0047 uf @ 3/6/10/15 kv cap couldn't be wired directly 
across the plate xfmr SEC. 

Correct size movs  on the 240 v side  should also work. 

Later.... Jim  VE7RF   
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