Duane and all who responded,
Thanks to all who responded. I tried many of the suggestions, but to no
avail. The latest QST, January 2005, has an article on electrical circuits
by Steve Ford and includes a description of a GFI. He says "some early
units may have been sensitive to RF radiation, but this problem appears to
have been solved." Steve is right on. I bought and installed a new GFI
outlet for the bathroom ($11.89 at Home Depot). End of problem. Swan
Linear on max but no tripping of the breaker.
Now I need to get a line filter to keep my XYL's electric bed from cranking
up when I transmit. That's a no-no at 6am :-)
At 04:40 PM 12/14/2004, you wrote:
Hello Charles,
GFI breakers are very sensitive, and can trip from induced
current if you have just a long circuit attached to it (I think they're
spec'ed to be OK up to 100' (or 150' - I forget the exact number.) Just
a wind current on a long outside wire will trip them. So, it's not a
surprise you might induce enough current in that circuit to trip the GFI.
You might try changing out the GFI outlet on the off-chance that it is
deteriorating with age and tripping more easily than it should.
Otherwise, perhaps rearranging the antenna a bit might reduce the current
enough to stop the problem.
73, Duane
On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 22:34:53 -0500 Charles Greene <w1cg@qsl.net> writes:
> Hi,
>
> I hooked up my Swan Linear to my OMNI-VI and had some RF in the
> shack when
> using my Windom antenna which I cured by installing a couple of 1:1
> baluns
> in the coax feed line, but I still have one problem I haven't solved
>
> yet. When I transmit, the upstairs bathroom Ground Fault Isolator
> trips,
> probably on RF. The antenna is about 15 ft from the GFI, so the
> wires
> going to the GFI may be picking up the RF directly from the antenna.
> On my
> vertical which is about 30 ft from the GFI, there are no RF
> problems. Has
> anyone had this problem, and what did you do to eliminate it? I
> must be
> somewhat common because I was talking to a local ham who had and
> still has
> the same problem. I was thinking about installing some .001 ufd
> caps
> across the wires in the bathroom wall coming into the GFI
> receptacle. I
> don't know if that would do the job or make it worse.
>
> TNX for the bandwidth
>
> Chas, W1CG
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