[TowerTalk] Tower Lighting

[Mark Robinson]

You could look at zero crossing detecting solid state relays or 
alternatively add a series current limiting resistor which is shorted out by 
a second relay after a fixed time interval.  Maybe try a beefier relay and 
see how much longer that will last.


http://www.power-io.com/products/dda5075100.htm

http://www.seagatecontrols.com/catalog.asp?prodid=595593&showprevnext=1



Mark



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roger Parsons" <ve3zi at yahoo.com>
To: <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 21 April, 2010 2:42 PM
Subject: [TowerTalk] Tower Lighting


>I have access to a 325' tower for my remote station, and like to assist the 
>tower owner where possible.
>
> The tower lighting is controlled by a light sensistive switch working a 
> relay which actually controls the lights. The relay controller appears to 
> be home made and did have a large open frame relay in it - until the 
> contacts completely disappeared! (The actual load from the lights is about 
> 1200w on each of two phases.) I replaced the relay with a 30A contactor 
> which I thought was overkill and it was fine for several years, but that 
> is now getting unreliable. Clearly there is a pretty heavy switch on surge 
> with incandescent lamps, but this must be true at all tower sites.
>
> What do the professionals do? (I suspect the answer to that is spend 
> several thousand dollars with Cutler-Hammer.....)
>
> 73 Roger
> VE3ZI
>
>
>
>
>
>
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