[TowerTalk] Tower Lighting

[Kipton Moravec]

On Wed, 2010-04-21 at 11:42 -0700, Roger Parsons wrote:
> 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
> 
> 
You need a snubber. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snubber

http://www.redlion.net%2FProducts%2FGroups%2FNoiseSuppression%2FSNUB%
2FDocs%2F12027.pdf

Kip
-- 
Kipton Moravec AE5IB .- . ..... .. -...

"Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
--Mark Twain