If you have a dedicated 120V circuit for your ham shack and only run one transceiver and one medium power amp you will probably be OK. The trouble comes from using a house circuit that already has other users and was designed for those users. Many house circuits use #14 wire and are good for 15 amps max. You may already have the lights in the room and a few clocks and other things. Add on a TV set and your wife's hair dryer and you are in trouble, so you need to do a load analysis. If you are going to run another circuit, it might as well be 220, or run two more circuits, a 110 and a 220. But, you are never safe to just plug in several medium to high current loads without doing at least an informal load analysis. If you have too many loads on a circuit you will soon lose your claim to "Never popping a breaker". Willis 'Cookie' Cooke K5EWJ
________________________________ From: Monty Shultes <mon...@mindspring.com> To: Ron D'Eau Claire <r...@cobi.biz> Cc: "elecraft@mailman.qth.net" <Elecraft@mailman.qth.net> Sent: Wed, May 4, 2011 5:49:25 AM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] [KPA500]KPA500 power cord question I have been using an ALS-600, the 600-watt Ameritron solid state amp, for two years. My shack is wired for 120 volts, 20 amps, 2 circuits. The voltage from the power supply drops only slightly when transmitting, almost surely from internal factors, not house wiring. The AC mains voltage does not drop. I have never tripped a breaker. The Elecraft Amp is probably more power efficient than the ALS-600 with its sophisticated power supply. I'd worry about something else. FWIW. Monty K2DLJ > The important point is whether the voltage to the finals at full output is > as different when the KPA500 is supplied by 240 or 120V mains. I believe the > answer is "no". AFAIK, the KPA500, and it's power supply, was designed and > tested to meet all of its performance specifications with either a 120V or > 240V mains supply. - Ron D'Eau Claire > > > >> No. The KPA500 peak demand is less from your 120 volt outlet than >> most household vacuum cleaners or window air conditioners. And, >> unless you are running a full-carrier mode, the average demand by >> your KPA500 is far below the peak. - Joe Subich ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
