On 8/24/2020 8:17 PM, Clay Autery wrote:
Side bonus, was that the 12VDC ground plane was so good afterwards, that I have been able to take out a lot of the home run grounds from a bunch of lights, et al... ofsetting weight gain by some bit.

Important fundamental concept, Clay, that I learned in an IEEE EMC workshop. DC follows the path of least RESISTANCE. AC follows the path of least IMPEDANCE. If there is a transmission line with, for example, a chassis in parallel with the transmission line return, above about 1 kHz, all the return current will be in the transmission line, NOT in the lower resistance chassis.

That's because the return patch through the chassis includes a lot of INDUCTIVE REACTANCE, which increases in proportion to frequency, while the path through the transmission line, if matched, never rises about Zo of the line. The whole point of using the transmission line is to reduce noise and crosstalk. It's only effect on DC (as compared to the chassis path) is to slightly reduce the DCR of the return path by adding the transmission line return in parallel. With coax, of course, the shield is the return. Wtih 2-wire line, one conductor is the "hot" lead, the other the return. AND -- 2-wire line and coax are no different in this regard! The KPA500, for example, uses twisted pair for wiring from the input coax to the amp input stage.

73, Jim K9YC
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