Amps
[Top] [All Lists]

[AMPS] Logic v. Magic

To: <amps@contesting.com>
Subject: [AMPS] Logic v. Magic
From: 2@vc.net (measures)
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 11:14:40 -0700
>
>Peter Chadwick wrote:
>>
>>Colin says:
>>
>>>I believe most of the modern film  resistors are made with a spiral design
>>>on a surface.  Thus, they will have some inductance.  
>>
>>So where's the difference between them and nichrome inductor, except that the
>>resistance is higher?
>>
>Inductance is smaller. 

?  And it's getting smaller.  A few years ago, Matsushita 1-ohm, 3w 
resistors had c. 36nH of inductance because the conductive film had a 
number of turns.  Currently, such resistors have c. 12nH of L because 
they have many fewer turns.  My guess is that the film is now more 
resistive - so fewer turns are needed to arrive at 1.0 ohms.  The 100-ohm 
units we use in our suppressors have c. 10nH.  Normally, two are 
paralleled.  

>......
>By using a bundle of several higher-value resistors in parallel, you can
>get the inductance down to quite low values. 

Not all that low.  This is a logarithmic function.  Two, 10-nH units in 
parallel do not = 5nH.  

>This works as a grid load
>for 50MHz and even 144MHz, so it will work for parasitic suppressors
>too. (There's also a way to get the inductance down to exactly zero, but
>I won't steal someone else's lines.)
>
"exactly" sounds like Tom

>>Let's not lose sight of the fact a nichrome inductor will have a Q that
>>increases with frequency - at least, until the frequency is reached at which 
the
>>self capacity affects the Q.
>>
>Let's not get too hung up on the Qs of individual components. What
>ultimately matters is the damping load that is presented to the tube at
>the frequency of the potential VHF parasitic. 

>Calculating this load
>requires a lot of parallel<>series impedance transformations, 

?  (principally one)  The suppressor is the main game in the anode 
circuit because all of the anode current must pass through it.  

>which
>involve ALL the other circuit values: tube capacitance, RF choke
>inductance and self-capacitance, stray series inductance and even the
>setting of C1 in the pi-tank. 

Indeed.    In Henry 2K4s and 3Ks, the output compartment appears to be 
resonant near the parasitic freq.  .  .  Murphy was undoubtedly right. 
>
>All these other circuit values affect VHF stability - not just the
>parasitic suppressor - which incidentally explains why a particular
>suppressor design may work in one amp but not in another.
>
>Until I got down and crunched the numbers, I hadn't fully realised that
>the value of the suppressor Q is literally *useless*. To do the
>calculation, you  need both the L and the R of the suppressor network -
>the two separate numbers. Rolling them together into a single value of Q
>creates a "dumbed-down" number that you can't actually use. (In other
>words, it's a mathematical proof of something we already knew - that the
>arguments about "my suppressor Q is better than yours" are completely
>vacuous.)

 Q is directly related to the parallel equivalent R - which Wes calls 
''Rp''.   This is important because it directly affects VHF gain.  Higher 
Rp means higher VHF gain.  At 100MHz, the copper-wire suppressor had an 
Rp of 166-ohms, and the resistance-wire suppressor had an Rp of 101-ohms. 
 Of course, the Rp of the copper-wire suppressor could easily be reduced 
to 101-ohms by simply increasing L-supp.  The sticky wicket is that 
dissipation in R-supp increases exponentially.  If R-supp burns out on 
10m, how effective is the suppressor going to be?
During the parasitics debate I kept bringing up the issue of R-supp 
dissipation - but Wes and Tom stonewalled me.  
>
>.....

cheers,  Ian

-  Rich..., 805.386.3734, www.vcnet.com/measures.  
end


--
FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/FAQ/amps
Submissions:              amps@contesting.com
Administrative requests:  amps-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems:                 owner-amps@contesting.com


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>