[TenTec] Centurion Amp Woes

[John K Gotwals]

Thank you, RB, for your response although it was a lot more windy than I had wanted. Your comment about the Drake L-4B containing surge suppressor resistors in the filament transformer is incorrect. As stated in my message, which you included in your reply, the resistors are bleeder resistors. They have values of 50K ohms each and are connected across the HV capacitor string.

John, N9JG

-----Original Message-----
Date: Sun, 8 Oct 2006 18:42:34 -0400
From: "RB" <K9RB at bellsouth.net>
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Centurion Amp Woes
To: "'Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment'" <tentec at contesting.com>
Message-ID: <072901c6eb2b$0c486530$0201a8c0 at k9rb8c670f7e81>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

[snip]
The resistors that you refer to are surge suppressor resistors, typically
installed on the primary of the filament transformer, to "step-start" the
filament voltage for a few seconds to aid in prevention of the large current
surge from distorting the filament by delaying full power from the filament
transformer until the filament gets warmed up slowly with partial power
first upon turning the amp on initially. 
[snip]

-----Original Message-----
From: tentec-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com]
On Behalf Of John K Gotwals
Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2006 4:40 PM
To: tentec at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Centurion Amp Woes

[snip]
In addition to the two 
3-500ZGs, my L-4B power supply has two series connected 50 watt bleeder 
resistors which get exceedingly hot while the power is turned on, and I 
would guess that thermal fatigue of these resistors might also be increased 
by frequent turn-on/off.
[snip]