开云体育

HF radio and ACFI Breakers

Mike Pearson All Messages By This Member #74 So I have found out that my house has 4 ACFI Breakers for Eaton that are susceptible to RF interference. I have sent an email to Eaton to see if they have a suitable replacement. What other things can I try? What are some acceptable grounding practices I should put in place to reduce RFI? Current set up is a Yaesu FT-890 (borrowing from Al, thank you), 20Meter Dipole antenna handing off the side of my house.? I see there is a grounding pin on the back of the radio that could be attached to something??? I also tired to find my houses grounding rod near the power meter to no avail, so I don't know how the house is bonded to ground (maybe water pipe?).? Any suggestions would be appreciated.? -- Mike Pearson KJ7VXX
Daniel J Mattingly, N0FQN #75 开云体育 Here's an article from the ARRL addressing ACFI breakers. Not sure if it will help. They keep coming up with more dumb stuff claiming it's for your safety. More like it's for your money. 73 Dan N0FQN On 9/5/2021 3:54 PM, Michael F Pearson, KJ7VXX wrote: toggle quoted message Show quoted text So I have found out that my house has 4 ACFI Breakers for Eaton that are susceptible to RF interference. I have sent an email to Eaton to see if they have a suitable replacement. What other things can I try? What are some acceptable grounding practices I should put in place to reduce RFI? Current set up is a Yaesu FT-890 (borrowing from Al, thank you), 20Meter Dipole antenna handing off the side of my house.? I see there is a grounding pin on the back of the radio that could be attached to something??? I also tired to find my houses grounding rod near the power meter to no avail, so I don't know how the house is bonded to ground (maybe water pipe?).? Any suggestions would be appreciated.? -- Mike Pearson KJ7VXX
Daniel J Mattingly, N0FQN #76 开云体育 Your dipole creates lobes. these lobes carry all the RF power. If the dipole is situated in such a way that the lobe(s) may be directly in line with the ACFI beakers. You may try and move the dipole, if possible, to another location. Amazing that 100 watts trips them. Poor design with no forethought on Eaton's part. They're made to detect unusual wave forms in the AC line. This makes it very difficult to prevent interference.? Grounding the rig will help with the receive of the rig but, not the transmit signal. 73 Dan N0FQN On 9/5/2021 3:54 PM, Michael F Pearson, KJ7VXX wrote: toggle quoted message Show quoted text So I have found out that my house has 4 ACFI Breakers for Eaton that are susceptible to RF interference. I have sent an email to Eaton to see if they have a suitable replacement. What other things can I try? What are some acceptable grounding practices I should put in place to reduce RFI? Current set up is a Yaesu FT-890 (borrowing from Al, thank you), 20Meter Dipole antenna handing off the side of my house.? I see there is a grounding pin on the back of the radio that could be attached to something??? I also tired to find my houses grounding rod near the power meter to no avail, so I don't know how the house is bonded to ground (maybe water pipe?).? Any suggestions would be appreciated.? -- Mike Pearson KJ7VXX
Mike Pearson All Messages By This Member #77 Ya. Its actually all over the internet that this brand is an issue. Several people posted that contacting Eaton fixed the issue as Eaton sent replacement items. I contacted them and I'll see if I get lucky or just need an electrician to replace with other manufacturer.? The Dipole is a good 25ft from breakers and is set up perpendicular and not parallels to the breakers. The radio is about 15ft from breakers. Thanks for the advice.? -- Mike Pearson KJ7VXX
Walt Jones KC7HEX All Messages By This Member #79 I have those?ACFI Breakers, not having any RF issues but when I placed a battery / generator backup and those breakers always trip. ?My non-ACFI breakers don’t trip. ?Funny that breakers also has GFI outlets on them. Discuss this with an electrician and they said they had to use them because of code, but said you can just replace them with the normal breakers. No issues now, can have my whole home running on battery / generator power. Walt KC7HEX
Marshall J Alexander, KJ7TRW All Messages By This Member #80 开云体育 I purchased and skeemed through the ARRL grounding book. They recommend a dedicated ground rod as near as possible to your shack and equipment and use flat braided copper as short as possible to a central grounding lug that all your equipment is grounded too. Most radios, power supplies, antenna tuners have grounding lugs. Again use as short as possible flat braided copper from equipment to lug. I’m not an expert just repeating what ARRL said and is how I have my shack grounded. No rf problems so far. KJ7TRW? toggle quoted message Show quoted text On Sep 5, 2021, at 4:11 PM, Daniel J Mattingly, N0FQN <n0fqnd2@...> wrote: ? Here's an article from the ARRL addressing ACFI breakers. Not sure if it will help. They keep coming up with more dumb stuff claiming it's for your safety. More like it's for your money. 73 Dan N0FQN On 9/5/2021 3:54 PM, Michael F Pearson, KJ7VXX wrote: So I have found out that my house has 4 ACFI Breakers for Eaton that are susceptible to RF interference. I have sent an email to Eaton to see if they have a suitable replacement. What other things can I try? What are some acceptable grounding practices I should put in place to reduce RFI? Current set up is a Yaesu FT-890 (borrowing from Al, thank you), 20Meter Dipole antenna handing off the side of my house.? I see there is a grounding pin on the back of the radio that could be attached to something??? I also tired to find my houses grounding rod near the power meter to no avail, so I don't know how the house is bonded to ground (maybe water pipe?).? Any suggestions would be appreciated.? -- Mike Pearson KJ7VXX
Daniel J Mattingly, N0FQN #82 开云体育 That was my thought about replacing them. IMHO they are a waste of time unless using sub standard wiring or, electrician with poor skills. They keep changing codes to facilitate the times.? I'm willing to bet the generator was giving a less than pure sine wave was the cause of the tripping. Seems one brand is the main culprit. Plus, they are expensive. About twice or more, than a standard breaker. Another way of getting more of your hard earned money. Being digital guess what that gives the electric company capable of doing? Monitoring every circuit in your home. They have the digital meters. Now, they can go right into home and monitor all you do. Seems harmless, right? Think again. 73 Dan N0FQN On 9/6/2021 8:02 AM, Walt Jones Jr, KC7HEX wrote: toggle quoted message Show quoted text I have those?ACFI Breakers, not having any RF issues but when I placed a battery / generator backup and those breakers always trip. ?My non-ACFI breakers don’t trip. ?Funny that breakers also has GFI outlets on them. Discuss this with an electrician and they said they had to use them because of code, but said you can just replace them with the normal breakers. No issues now, can have my whole home running on battery / generator power. Walt KC7HEX
Mike Pearson All Messages By This Member #83 Eaton got back to me. All breakers after?October 2014 have been redesigned. Now I need to find out what year tag is on the side of the breaker. If it's?old enough?then it's a free replacement.? ? Now to play with my breaker box. Yippie!!!!? -- Mike Pearson KJ7VXX
Riki M Hilton, KJ7YCI All Messages By This Member #84 Outstanding and thank you for sharing! I hope everyone is doing well?? Sent with Secure Email. ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ On Sunday, September 5th, 2021 at 4:28 PM, Marshall J Alexander, KJ7TRW via groups.io <mja533@...> wrote: toggle quoted message Show quoted text I purchased and skeemed through the ARRL grounding book. They recommend a dedicated ground rod as near as possible to your shack and equipment and use flat braided copper as short as possible to a central grounding lug that all your equipment is grounded too. Most radios, power supplies, antenna tuners have grounding lugs. Again use as short as possible flat braided copper from equipment to lug. I’m not an expert just repeating what ARRL said and is how I have my shack grounded. No rf problems so far. KJ7TRW? On Sep 5, 2021, at 4:11 PM, Daniel J Mattingly, N0FQN <n0fqnd2@...> wrote: ? Here's an article from the ARRL addressing ACFI breakers. Not sure if it will help. They keep coming up with more dumb stuff claiming it's for your safety. More like it's for your money. 73 Dan N0FQN On 9/5/2021 3:54 PM, Michael F Pearson, KJ7VXX wrote: So I have found out that my house has 4 ACFI Breakers for Eaton that are susceptible to RF interference. I have sent an email to Eaton to see if they have a suitable replacement. What other things can I try? What are some acceptable grounding practices I should put in place to reduce RFI? Current set up is a Yaesu FT-890 (borrowing from Al, thank you), 20Meter Dipole antenna handing off the side of my house.? I see there is a grounding pin on the back of the radio that could be attached to something??? I also tired to find my houses grounding rod near the power meter to no avail, so I don't know how the house is bonded to ground (maybe water pipe?).? Any suggestions would be appreciated.? -- Mike Pearson KJ7VXX

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