[Amps] Back with anohter question - Ameritron 811H

[Gary Smith]

Hi Dan.
    My thoughts on your issue: go out and look at the rating of the fuse or circuit breaker. If you are gettin incoming line V drops of this level too many goodies on the same outlet or outlets. This may be old hat, but quite often there are more than one wall receptacle wired to one circuit breaker.
    Try this: plug a light into the wall receptacle that you are using, then find the circuit breaker for that receptacle, switch it to off. Then, plug the light bulb into other wall receptacles to see how many are on the same cb.
    You might be surprised as to what you find.
You should get a short voltage "blip" or drop when you turn on the amp., that due to everything in the gizmo is getting ready to operate.
    If you experience much variation in live voltage 110-120 v never steady, always up and down voltages, maybe a quick call to the local power provider would be in order.  Tell them of what's happening, tell them of the possible damage to ALL of your electronic goodies and how maybe they might have to share some responsibility in replacing them.
    Sounds as if you might have a old or unstable pole pig or voltage drop xfrmr to you and some of your neighbors houses.
I had a problem such as yours when my subdivision was built, line stability was as good as  drunk on saturday night. 108 v lows to 127 v highs.
    Mentioned this to local power provider, they got right on it.  Now, 110 v line voltages are at a steady (if a little high) 120-122 volts. But they are steady.  
Incoming  AC for my AL-800 (its called "nominal 230 V") is 240-245 volts.  The big thing is to have a steady line voltage not an up-down-up-down variation and so-on.
    Fwiw, Ameritron sez the 811h will run on 110 V lines but... they also point out that it should be on an isolated 110 V line.  "If possible."
I have two MFJ plug in ac volt meters in my house, always keep an eye on them, I do.
    Hope my ideas are helpful to you,
73,
Gary Smith
WA6FGI



---- Original Message ----- 
  From: Dan 
  To: Amps at contesting.com 
  Sent: Sunday, December 26, 2004 8:19 AM
  Subject: [Amps] Back with anohter question - Ameritron 811H


  I own a Ameritron 811H. It really does very well giving me full rated output and very good reports. 
  Here is the question/problem.. I do have what I consider low AC line voltage. I have monitored my line voltage and see anywhere from 120 volts peak during the night to a more normal 114 volts some times less. When I turn on the AMP I do get a quick small drop of between 111 to 12 volts AC but it recovers tot he average at the time very quickly.
  On the AMP HV I see a normal of 1700 maybe slightly higher to 1725. On transmit I see a drop to 1450 volts or so on voice peaks. All of this from what I have read is normal for the AMP. I do have the transformer tapped at 110 volts lowering it from the factory 120 volts as when I first got the amp the HV numbers were about 100 to 120 volts less.

  They question I have is could these lower voltages be the cause of a problem I have on my computer (on same cricuit) sometimes rebooting when I fire the AMP up. I do as I said have a quick voltage when the amp is first switched on and seems if the numbers are on th elower side that is too much for the computer and is reboots itself. however, after AMP is on and even while tuning it the computer is happy and works fine.

  One last item. I did blow a fuse the other day when I switched the AMP on. I replaced that fuse and all is fine might not be related but a friedn said he thought the fuse blowing could also be the cause or related to low voltage as at the time of switchign on the transformer in the AMP draws more current since the voltage might go low.
  Again, the weird thing is the AMP tunes great works great and seems to otherwise be just fine. It seem tha inital kickof the switchign on the other equipment on the circuit are just not happy. I do have a seond computer on same circuit and a small refrig. I have had both computer do a reboot at AMP switch on...

  repeating one other item after the AMP is on all equipment seems to be fine even whenI tune the amp the computers run great..

  Woudl an isolation transformer or line conditioner be the fix here? if so any suggested brands rating etc.. Any ideas??

  Thanks
   



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