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Re: [TowerTalk] There's 'ground', and then there's 'ground'

To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] There's 'ground', and then there's 'ground'
From: "K8RI on Tower Talk" <k8ri-tower@charter.net>
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2005 23:38:15 -0500
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>

In HF power amplifiers, I have found a good general rule of
thumb is this:
At 30 MHz is the clean braid from RG-8 cable has about the
same current carrying capacity as #14 or 16 tinned solid
buss wire.

It's quite common to have braided leads of rather large size
overheat and fail even at just several amperes at radio
frequencies.

I've replaced quite a few coax cables from the tank coil to the relay on a number of well known amps. The braid would get hot, the dielectric melt right where it went into the shield, and then short.

It was easy to fix and I never saw it damage anything else, except for a few
DXers dispostions. <G>

Roger Halstead (K8RI, EN73 & ARRL Life Member)
N833R, World's Oldest Debonair (S# CD-2)
www.rogerhalstead.com



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