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Re: [TenTec] Slightly OT: Sunspots for propagation? Who needs 'em?

To: k9yc@arrl.net, Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment <tentec@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Slightly OT: Sunspots for propagation? Who needs 'em?
From: Gary J FollettDukes HiFi <dukeshifi@comcast.net>
Reply-to: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment <tentec@contesting.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2016 14:35:10 -0500
List-post: <tentec@contesting.com">mailto:tentec@contesting.com>
I agree, this is off topic now and will read your reference .

Thanks,

Gary


> On Aug 27, 2016, at 1:54 PM, Jim Brown <k9yc@audiosystemsgroup.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Gary,
> 
> I've written extensively about this in tutorials written for hams, and also 
> for audio/video installation contractors. They're on my website. IMO, an 
> extensive discussion is WAY off topic of this reflector.
> 
> k9yc.com/publish.htm <http://k9yc.com/publish.htm>
> 
> The simple fact is that the power drawn by appliances with motors is a small 
> fraction of the total power for most retail customers. While the same is true 
> in large buildings, they have enough motor loads to justify the cost of 
> 3-phase power (mostly for HVAC, but also for elevators, etc.). Many buildings 
> also use the higher voltages provided by 3-phase distribution for fluorescent 
> lighting, but wiring to those fixtures is single phase, and the load current 
> drawn has the same issues with harmonics as other electronic loads.
> 
> As to delta connections -- virtually any transformer or large motor has stray 
> capacitance between its windings and its enclosure, and that enclosure is 
> usually bonded to structure, which is grounded. Also, the power company 
> nearly always uses a system called "high leg Delta" in neighborhoods where 
> most customers are residential but a few need 3-phase power. 3-phase 
> customers get 240V delta, everyone else get's a transformer fed by one leg 
> with a center tapped secondary, and the neutral of that feed carries some of 
> the harmonic current from the loads of those 3-phase customers.
> 
> High-leg Delta is quite common in cities and suburbs, and it's also feeding 
> me and my neighbors out in the country in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I've 
> measured as much as 1A on the conductor that grounds my neutral, and I've 
> measured more than that in recording studios where there were more industrial 
> users on the same power system.  This was a BIG  problem for the recording 
> studio, because the magnetic field from that current coupled strongly into 
> single-coil guitar pickups and dynamic mics that lacked hum-bucking coils. 
> Which is why I was there. :)
> 
> 73, Jim K9YC
> 
> 73, Jim K9YC
> 
> On Sat,8/27/2016 11:20 AM, Gary J FollettDukes HiFi wrote:
>> 3-phase power is not the universal blessing that you believe it to be. Well, 
>> I don’t really think I said it was the universal blessing. I just said that 
>> there is a reason why 3 phase power is used in heavy power consumption 
>> settings with efficiency in mind. There is no room for argument that a 3 
>> phase RF power generator, operating without transformers, without filter 
>> capacitors is more efficient and less costly than its single phase 
>> counterpart. In addition, the elimination of filter capacitors reduces heat 
>> loss and eliminates the single most failure prone component in power 
>> supplies, the electrolytic capacitors.
>> 
>> The overwhelming bulk of the power delivered to today's homes is to 
>> electronic loads, which draw highly distorted current, resulting in very 
>> high harmonic content. That, in turn, results in high neutral currents that 
>> consist of "triplen" harmonics of the fundamental rate (50 or 60 Hz). 
>> Triplen harmonics are those whose order is a multiple of 3, and they add in 
>> the neutral rather than cancel, even with loads that are perfectly balanced. 
>> Those harmonics also add in the "green wire," producing the characteristic 
>> "ground buzz" (180 Hz, 360 Hz, 540 Hz, 720 Hz, . . . ), as opposed to hum 
>> (50/60 Hz).
>> 
>> Neutral currents in 3-phase systems can easily exceed the current in a phase 
>> conductor. Neutral current is what started the very real "Towering Inferno" 
>> and burning insulation running up cable risers carried the flames.
>> 
>> Does this apply to Delta 3 phase systems that have no neutral?
>> 
>> I am not trying to be confrontational here. As we all should be doing, I am 
>> just trying to learn more as we discuss radio related topics. I am not right 
>> about everything, which is why I am always trying to learn more.
>> 
>> For example, I am still trying to understand how the power companies pulled 
>> off that scheme of promoting “money saving efficient appliances”, a 
>> multi-year pitch followed by the whining plea to the PUC for higher per KWh 
>> rate to make up for lost sales caused by massive implementation of more 
>> efficient (and often less reliable) appliances.
>> 
>> This is relevant to radio hobbits because the expenditure of some capital to 
>> make three phase available more widely available would reduce cost of linear 
>> amplifiers and other power equipment.
>> 
>> Gary
>> 
>> 
>>> On Aug 27, 2016, at 12:30 PM, Jim Brown <k9yc@audiosystemsgroup.com 
>>> <mailto:k9yc@audiosystemsgroup.com> <mailto:k9yc@audiosystemsgroup.com 
>>> <mailto:k9yc@audiosystemsgroup.com>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 3-phase power is not the universal blessing that you believe it to be. The 
>>> overwhelming bulk of the power delivered to today's homes is to electronic 
>>> loads, which draw highly distorted current, resulting in very high harmonic 
>>> content. That, in turn, results in high neutral currents that consist of 
>>> "triplen" harmonics of the fundamental rate (50 or 60 Hz). Triplen 
>>> harmonics are those whose order is a multiple of 3, and they add in the 
>>> neutral rather than cancel, even with loads that are perfectly balanced. 
>>> Those harmonics also add in the "green wire," producing the characteristic 
>>> "ground buzz" (180 Hz, 360 Hz, 540 Hz, 720 Hz, . . . ), as opposed to hum 
>>> (50/60 Hz).
>>> 
>>> Neutral currents in 3-phase systems can easily exceed the current in a 
>>> phase conductor. Neutral current is what started the very real "Towering 
>>> Inferno" and burning insulation running up cable risers carried the flames.
>> 
> 
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