[TowerTalk] "Nuisance" tripping of safety devices; (was: Arc fault Acom 2K)

[Richard (Rick) Karlquist]

I don't have an Acom, but I have an Alpha 9500 that
has similar fault detectors, which are also quite
sensitive, and cannot be overridden.  Some faults
require the operator to turn the power off and then
on, and wait 3 minutes for the cathode to come up
to temperature.

The solution these so called nuisance faults IMHO
is the same as the solution to other similar
situations such as GFCI tripping:  FIX THE REASON
FOR THE FAULT.

The solution to tripping during a contest IMHO is
verify your station the weekend before.  And
the gold standard for verification is your fault
protected linear at full power, key down.

Case in point:

Before the California QSO party, I checked my
80 meter dipole with my AA-55 Zoom and it looked
perfect.  My mistake was not to check it at
high power.  The weekend of the contest, it didn't
work at any power higher than 1 watt.  Long story
short, there was a bad PL259 at the top of the
tower.

My 160 meter vertical has had various problems
that only showed up when the linear was used.

A "nuisance" fault can cause an overheating
situation that eventually turns into a fire.

73
Rick N6RK



On 11/9/2018 4:45 AM, W1JCW John wrote:
> Have a strange problem in the shack.
> 
> Run the same antennas and had no issues, put in line my Yaesu 5000 and palstar AT.
> All antennas tune flat 1:1 but when I run QRO the Acom 2K comes up with arc fault even with low drive of 20watts.
> 
> I can place a load at the end of the coax outside and have no issues but when I got to any antenna 260' center fed dipole or a vertical I get a fault and the amp shuts down.
> 
> Sounds like an RF issue but why now when nothing has changed outside?
> 
> Have not seen anything like this in 40yrs I've been operating.
> 
> 
> 73-
> W1JCW
> John
> 
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