[TowerTalk] More 40 meter problems

[Jeff DePolo]

> I do not have a tower at the moment. I have a hustler 5 btv 
> that was on my roof but now it is ground mounted. For some 
> reason when I get on 40 it trips one of my arc fault 
> breakers. I replaced the troubled breaker with the same 
> results. I am a master electrician and saw this with one of 
> my GFI outlets but when I changed it the problem stopped. 
> This has not and I do not want to put a regular breaker in 
> its place as it would not be safe. Any Ideas?
> 
> NY6DX

Put a line filter on that problematic circuit, installed in close proximity
to the breaker.  Corcom is probably the biggest producer of line filters for
EMI/RFI.  They make many different models.  Obviously since your operation
is at 7 MHz you'll want to look for one that provides appreciable
attenuation at that frequency.  The specs will show the common-mode and
differential-mode attenuation at various frequencies, usually starting from
around 10 kHz and going up to tens of MHz.

While you can roll your own filter, in the interest of safety and keeping
everything up to code, I'd get something from Corcom that is UL-listed and
be done with it.  But, for the sake of testing and determining how much
filtering you need, some experimentation might be in order before picking
out a manufactured part.

On caveat is that some (if not most) models of line filters have some
leakage to ground which could cause GFCI trips.  If you actually have a
combination AFCI/GFCI breaker that could be an issue; check the leakage
specs for the EMI filter and compare to the ground fault trip current specs
of your breaker.

				--- Jeff WN3A


---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus