Lots of generators have bad outputs. Most inverters made in the last few years have very good outputs as the older units produced a square wave or mortified square wave. Advances in electronics have allowed sine wave inverters to be produced at a much lower cost than they could a few years ago. Many generators are capacitor excited, (use a cap to provide excitation current) these have lower quality output, bad brushes or slip-rings can also cause poor output. One option is to operate the radio on a 12v battery with a charger running off the generator keeping the battery charged. A UPS will not work, most will switch to battery if the input power is not up to line spec. They do make online UPS that will smooth out the power but they are very expensive. They convert incoming power to DC and the batteries float on line, so there is no switching between the line & battery. I have installed these in data centers, but like I said are real pricey. The newer inverter generators have very good output but you get what you pay for. A generator you pay $200 for not going to preform like the $900 one. Most newer quality generators will be marked with their total harmonic distortion, or indicate they are low in it. Best for electronic equipment. I have worked on generators that by a volt meter had 120v output but the freq was 75hz. causing it to destroy equipment plugged into it . The speed affects the HZ. I know a ham that blew out his rig plugging it into a Colman generator with a bad output. Robert KD5YVQ
From: BVARC <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Jonathan Guthrie via BVARC Sent: Monday, June 15, 2020 1:44 PM To: Will Gray via BVARC <[email protected]> Cc: Jonathan Guthrie <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [BVARC] Emergency Power Quality Perhaps I'm showing my ignorance, but I would think that an actual AC generator would have a better waveform than any inverter that isn't intended to tie into the grid. That makes me think that your generator is not working correctly. On 6/15/2020 1:14 PM, Will Gray via BVARC wrote: I have a 5500 watt diesel generator that gives me plenty of power but the waveform of the 60Hz power is flat topped and very rough (bad power for good equipment). I am looking for a source of an AC-AC inverter that would take that bad power and convert it to pure sine wave. Does anyone have any knowledge of a source of such an inverter. Lots of DC to AC inverters around small to very large (solar panel). But I have been unable to locate a an AC-AC inverter. 73s Will Gray, KB7QL -- 431 Forest Circle Ruston, LA 71270-2642 H:318-251-2219 C:318-265-2976 (text) [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> ________________________________________________ Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club BVARC mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org
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