USB to Serial Plus 1500 watts

Ok guys....

Everything is grounded....but when you are pushing legal limit power in a contest, I have blown up my USB to Serial Converter.  It just doesn't work after the RF does its magic to it.  That is why I went to a serial connection.  So, what have people experienced with their USB Converters when running the big amp?

Lee - K0WA


 The New Kansas QSO Party - August 29, Sat 9am-9pm and August 30 Sun 9am-3pm CDT
More Info at:  http://www.ksqsoparty.org/

In our day and age it seems that Common Sense is in short supply.  If you don't have any Common Sense - get some Common Sense and use it.  If you can't find any Common Sense, ask for help from somebody who has some Common Sense.  Is Common Sense divine?
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[n7ws]

Some random thoughts:

Unless the "contest legal limit" is different from the regular legal limit (always a possibility I guess) I haven't had any problems.

How did you determine that the USB-serial converter was damaged by RF and not something else?

If you have enough RF in the shack to be blowing up things, you have other problems that need solving.

Wes


--- On Tue, 8/4/09, Lee Buller <[hidden email]> wrote:

Ok guys....

Everything is grounded....but when you are pushing legal limit power in a contest, I have blown up my USB to Serial Converter.  It just doesn't work after the RF does its magic to it.  That is why I went to a serial connection.  So, what have people experienced with their USB Converters when running the big amp?

Lee - K0WA





     
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[Don Wilhelm-4]

Lee,

Everything may be grounded, but that is a safety ground, and it
certainly cannot be relied on for an RF ground.  It sounds like things
in your shack are hot with RF.  The place to correct that is at the
antennas - the feedline should not be carrying common mode RF into the
shack - i.e. all the RF flowing on the feedlines should be balanced and
no radiation should occur.  That should be true for both coax and
balanced line.

To repeat, if you have RF in the shack problems, get the RF balanced at
the antenna feedpoint, and if the feedline is coax, use an effective
balun to keep the common mode current off the outside of the coax.

73,
Don W3FPR

Lee Buller wrote:
> Ok guys....
>
> Everything is grounded....but when you are pushing legal limit power in a contest, I have blown up my USB to Serial Converter.  It just doesn't work after the RF does its magic to it.  That is why I went to a serial connection.  So, what have people experienced with their USB Converters when running the big amp?
>
> Lee - K0WA
>  
>
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[w4nhj]

Guess what Lee, I have blown 3 serial ports.  Not sure why you would think
high RF will blow a USB to serial converter and not a serial port.  FYI I
built a cable using CAT 5 cable as suggested on this site and have not had a
problem since.

Frank - W4NHJ

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lee Buller" <[hidden email]>
To: "Elecraft Reflector" <[hidden email]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 9:33 AM
Subject: [Elecraft] USB to Serial Plus 1500 watts

> Ok guys....
>
> Everything is grounded....but when you are pushing legal limit power in a
> contest, I have blown up my USB to Serial Converter.  It just doesn't work
> after the RF does its magic to it.  That is why I went to a serial
> connection.  So, what have people experienced with their USB Converters
> when running the big amp?
>
> Lee - K0WA
>
>
> The New Kansas QSO Party - August 29, Sat 9am-9pm and August 30 Sun
> 9am-3pm CDT
> More Info at:  http://www.ksqsoparty.org/
>
> In our day and age it seems that Common Sense is in short supply.  If you
> don't have any Common Sense - get some Common Sense and use it.  If you
> can't find any Common Sense, ask for help from somebody who has some
> Common Sense.  Is Common Sense divine?
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html 

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