[RFI] IMPROPER AND PROPER SHIELD TERMINATION TECHNIQUES

[Jim Brown]

Excellent, Dave.  This is a perfect example of "The Pin One Problem and 
how to avoid it. The AES Standards Committee published AES48 to address 
this issue about 15 years ago, which was first raised by the late Neil 
Muncy, ex-W3WJE in an AES paper in 1994. Pro audio interconnections are 
carried on shielded twisted pair, and for reasons of system 
architecture, equipment is often widely separated. To avoid issues with 
legacy equipment that was built with the problems you have noted, and 
what Neil called "the Pin One problem" because Pin 1 of XLR connectors 
is the cable shield, it is necessary in that equipment to leave the 
cable shield open at audio frequencies so that triplen harmonics of 
mains power can't flow on cable shields between widely separated 
equipment. Neil's paper was published in the June 1995 edition of the 
Journal of Audio Engineering Society. He and I were subsequently elected 
Fellows of the AES.

Almost 20 years ago, I proposed, and our WG developed, the concept of an 
XL-series connector where pin 1 was terminated to the shell via a 
circumferential ring of chip capacitors, and with a suitable ferrite 
bead around the through contact to Pin 1. Neutrik, a dominant mfr based 
in EU of XL-connectors for pro audio put our concept into production. 
This solved a widespread problem of VHF/UHF RF from broadcast stations 
being detected on equipment designed with the Pin One problem.

It is quite likely that noise in the 3-5 MHz region radiated by both 
CATV and DSL systems carrying upstream data is by this mechanism.

73, Jim K9YC

On 11/24/2019 12:56 PM, David Eckhardt wrote:
> Dave Cole, our 'leader' has been kind enough to post this to a www page.
> Here is the link - THANK YOU, DAVE!!
> 
> https://www.nk7z.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/IMPROPER-AND-PROPER-SHIELD-TERMINATION-TECHNIQUES-23-NOV-2019.pdf
>