The electric company here and their lines are so inconsistent. We live in an area that should be fine but our AC voltage here varies greatly sometimes. In summer it's horrid.
Last night I went to turn on my stereo system and the power light didn't come on. I got freaked out a bit to say the least (it's a classic Marantz 1200 afterall). Tested the stereos wall plug for resistance and it was zilch so I knew it was a fuse. Unplugged the 6 amp fuse, I had one left and plugged it in. Ran the stereo on a dim bulb test for the power supply so that if something was damaged in the stereo it would light the bulb instead of blowing a switch box breaker.
Well the light lit and the stereo clicked on and protection relays clicked shut. So I knew all was fine.
Threw in a new fuse and all is good.
Took my multimeter and stuck it directly into the wall outlet. Our wall voltage was up to 130vac!! Normally it's at 117-118vac on average. Back when I was younger it was 110vac and that was only a decade ago.
I wonder if all the air conditioners and central air units are causing the spikes.
This fuse as been in this unit for years with no issue. I played music loudly a week ago and all was fine. Yet when turning on it popped a fuse. I am ABSOLUTELY sure it's the lines and not my stereo.
Anyone else here deal with this?
It also doesn't help with the storms, our power has went out multiple times now, transformers on lines have blew a lot this year. I think our lines have been causing some spikes but can't prove it yet.
Oh and to make matters worse we have a few power lines around us that are causing massive interference to shortwave reception, and even so much as to effect FM while passing under them in a car. You can literally stand under the lines and hear them make loud buzzing noises via your ears. This has got to stop but I don't know what to do?
Post by Ozone Express Radio on Jun 17, 2011 19:13:06 GMT -6
I live in a rural area on an electric co-op, so you can imagine how clean their grid is.......[/sarcasm]
I installed a voltmeter on the incoming line to my shack, and it varies pretty wildly from 110 to around 125. Only once or twice I've seen anything close to 130. I also installed an ammeter at the same time, and its a real surprise when the TX, Amp, mixer, compressor, computers, and other gear is all fired up, just how much you're pulling off the mains. I haven't yet had any equipment issues because of the variances, but I also disconnect my studio from the supply when its not actively broadcasting to prevent just such stuff. The PC's are of course surge protected with good quality (not Wal-Mart) stuff.
I don't seem to see much correlation to really hot or cold days where I'd think there was more usage of voltage and peaks/valleys in the supply voltage. I do notice a slight rise during the daytime hours though.
Surprisingly, the SW MW and other bands aren't too noisy, at least not in the last month or so anyway.
Our power is typically 126V solid. Lowest I've seen was 117V and three minutes later, a pole pig blew up (too many A/C's in the subdivision next door). Back to 126V
Does wonders on ST-70's whose power trannies are designed for 117V max. Getting a nice steady B+ of 520V on the EL34's instead of 480 is good for power, but those stupid can-caps tend to play model rocket *laugh*
Not surprising to see these recent rises in grid voltages and their repeating patterns. Seasonal usage does play a role, but lets not toss this to a usage peak or dip due to seasons. That is like saying the warming of the planets is all caused by our lack of paying a carbon footprint tax.
No it is much more complex than that. The grid is like one giant collecting element strung all across this planet and interconnected in one form or fashion, and in the cases where there is no direct connections, inductance properties come into play, even at considerable distances.
The grids are not only going through the seasonal usage increase, but also being effected by the solar activity going on and atmospheric side effects in the EM field. Power plants can regulate their generated outputs versus load conditions, but they cannot regulate how much or not the entire grid collects natural energy fields onto itself thereby passing it on down the lines. This is not saying solar activity is the brunt of the fluctuations on grid voltage regulation, but just a part causing the whole.
I run a carrier current AM station and have tracked line conditions and its changes for years and according to my observations, the usage peaks seem to be consistent with past years. But the more recent spiking and variances in tolerances over the last 5 years seem to not be concentrated on the season changes. One might say well more folks are using electric space heaters. It has been said that eating beans causes global warming and we need to pay a carbon footprint tax to cure that. I wonder if eating beans and running electric space heaters are the cause for the global warming taking place on the other planets in the solar system as well....we better add to that carbon footprint tax bill.
Peace
RFBurns
Keep them spike protectors and ups's inline and when idle...unplug.
K-ROCKS RadioOne
ZeroPointRadio
AM Stereo 1670
FM Stereo 92.1
Post by sgtpeppers on Jun 21, 2011 22:38:05 GMT -6
I upgraded my house to a 100 amp system, we don't have any problems. At the marina where my barge house sits we have lots of problems though. In the winter when heaters turn on for boats sometimes it actually gets so bad it knocks out the power for the whole dock.
My area is provided by hydro electric. It's reliable, but loosing hundreds of hectares is a fair price to power a city and a half.
Some people that are facing this problem solve it with a secondary power supply (windmill, solar, all that jazz and a battery pack) or even with a backup power supply like a generator or battery pack.
The problem is that there is large community expansion without the infrastructure expanding.
One way to fix it on your own home is to add insulation, and building/ renovating with the right materials. Metal roofing reflects and dissipates heat so in the summer months you may not even need air conditioning.
My area is provided by hydro electric. It's reliable, but loosing hundreds of hectares is a fair price to power a city and a half.
I live near Vancouver, BC. I hear you on the hydro power
We get maybe a week of heatwave, but when it does hit, it'll skyrocket a good 10-15C over seasonal overnight and drop back down as quick. No one has a chance to climatize and well insulated or not, A/C's get cranked
Post by Ozone Express Radio on Jun 25, 2011 21:37:52 GMT -6
Looks like we are all in for even more problems now. Seems the power cartel has decided that keeping tabs on the frequency of the electric supply isn't necessary anymore:
That's horrible if it's true. There are too many devices that rely on a pure 60hz sinewave. Even my oscilloscope calibrates itself from the power line. I can think of a ton of electronics that need a pure 60hz sine. If they screw with that then a lot of electronics are going to go wacko.
I never believed that utilizing the 60hz sine wave off the power grid was accurate enough to use as a time reference to begin with. Using a lineman's monitor set, you can watch the fluctuations and read it on the strip how bad that frequency reference can be...and over a short time period too.
As we all know, time is not a constant, it fluctuates with the fluctuations of the universe. WWV accounts for that fluctuation and adjusts accordingly....the power grid generators do not. They merely self regulate themselves outside of any real time reference with the world. And if anyone remembers in elementary school science, Earth's orbit is also not constant nor is its rotation, therefore time measured is not constant either. These changes are incredibly subtle and difficult to measure, however there nonetheless.
Remember the old WWV time tones? Sometimes some of the tones, particularly at the top of the hour or minute, they would be slightly longer or shorter in duration. Well there is your clue as to the time reference adjusting to time drift due to universe time drifting. Regardless if it is a drift of 1 percent over a year or .0000001 percent over 10 years or 100, there is still a drift and in order to be in sync with that real universe time, the reference must also adjust itself to match that drift, hence everything else will follow, clocks, computers, whatever.
Time IS on our side....more or less.
Peace.
K-ROCKS RadioOne
ZeroPointRadio
AM Stereo 1670
FM Stereo 92.1
As we all know, time is not a constant, it fluctuates with the fluctuations of the universe. WWV accounts for that fluctuation and adjusts accordingly....the power grid generators do not.
There's been some interesting articles on "real" and siderial time. WWV sync's with siderial time.
Then there's all sorts of heavy math involved with speed, gravity and such that makes for inaccuracies in our typical "real time" clocks. Two rubidium standard clocks, one on the ground and one on a plane will differ after even a short flight (nevermind getting into shuttle or ISS chronometers)
Post by RadioFreeEuropea on Jul 6, 2011 12:52:32 GMT -6
In here FFinland, mains voltage is 230V, nighttime its fall near 210V and day time its near 235V. It's not make any problems, only what I see, is plate voltage, normally running 3kV plate and current near 10mA. Nighttime plateV is about 2.9-2.8kV and current is 15-20mA.
Whit transistor, no anything problems.
RFEI SW MW LW FM Freeradio broadcasting isn't crime, it's my way life!
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