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Re: [Amps] which HV connector to use?

To: amps@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [Amps] which HV connector to use?
From: Ian White GM3SEK <gm3sek@ifwtech.co.uk>
Reply-to: Ian White GM3SEK <gm3sek@ifwtech.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 2010 07:40:39 +0000
List-post: <amps@contesting.com">mailto:amps@contesting.com>
Paul Christensen wrote:
>>
>> You can use the MHV type coax connector. Looks like a BNC on steroids.
>> I used them to power an IR Image Converter that required 8 kVDC many
>> moons ago.
>>
>> 73, Dick, W1KSZ

MHV are a dangerously bad design - a BNC plug can quite easily be mated 
with an MHV socket.

The single-pole Millen connectors are also dangerous because there's 
nothing to prevent a user from connecting only the B+, with no B-minus 
or ground return. With a separate RF chassis, switching on will give you 
a live chassis.

In both situations, something else usually prevents a fatal accident 
(the technical term for this is "dumb luck")... but still, there is 
something fundamentally wrong about any HV connector series that 
actually *adds* to the risk.


>Or in the alternative, an SHV connector as an improved type of HV 
>disconnect over the MHV for added safety.  With the SHV, the HV contact 
>breaks path before the grounded shell contact path..
>
>Paul, W9AC

Yes! With SHV, they finally got it right. As Paul says, they provide a 
guaranteed ground return. Also, both connectors have deeply recessed 
center pins, they cannot be mated with anything else and they use 
standard RG58 cable.

New SHV connectors are very expensive, but they often appear surplus and 
on eBay... precisely *because* they won't mate with anything else.



-- 

73 from Ian GM3SEK
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek
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