It's an Onan 4CCK-3R/1J 1800 RPM, 10 HP, 2 cylinder, gasoline, 3.5 KW, 4 KW surge, from 1965 with 57 hours use on it.
In the 2003 Northeast USA power blackout, it ran two homes, including two refrigerators and a freezer. Perhaps not a home-size unit, but the advantage is that is sips gasoline at a low rate. After three days of the 2003 power failure, we had used up the stored gasoline and I was beginning to siphon fuel from the vehicles, as no gas stations were operational. My Comcast broadband Internet was gone after the first hour and my dialup IP answered and connected, but nothing past their site. I had just removed my Direc satellite Internet service two months before. Since Comcast cable TV wasn't there, I connected an outside antenna and was able to get the Detroit TV stations 50 miles away. It was nice to be able to see the stars again, without all the light pollution. My Astron VS-50M has a 10 Ampere fuse in it, but apparently there wasn't enough remaining current available from the generator to open it. I added the GE 130 Volt MOV (from Newark) to the Astron myself. I took my MOV out and everything works fine. My first impulse was that there was a problem with the generator, until I isolated the symptom to that Astron and I realized that plus 10% voltage was tripping my MOV. Ray Brown wrote: > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "AA8K73 GMail" <[email protected] <mailto:aa8k73%40gmail.com>> > > > > > I added a 130 Volt MOV across the hot and neutral > > of an Astron 50 Amp power supply for a repeater > > and had an interesting effect. > > > > We lost AC power and switched over to the generator. > > When the load was added to the generator, the Onan's > > voltage sagged a bit and the throttle opened to > > bring the speed back. It overshot slightly and was > > high enough to trip the MOV. That short slowed the > > generator down until the voltage was too low and > > then the generator sped up again. And again it fired > > the MOV and slowed down until it cleared. It kept > > oscillating with huge voltage swings until I unplugged > > the Astron power supply. > > That's very interesting, all right. > > Was this a single-cylinder 3600 RPM generator, or was it one of > the twin-cylinder motor-home generators? > > I used to work for an Onan distributorship back when (70's) > and we had a similar problem with a Southwestern Bell setup. > They had a 2.5 LK, which was a single cylinder genset that ran > at 1800 RPM. They switched a 500 watt load in and out several > times a minute. When the 500 W load hit, it did the same thing > you had described. I brought up a 1 KW load (heater elements) > and plugged them in the circuit full-time, and it worked like a > champ, going between about 40% and 60% of full load. > Pretty stable. :-) > > Ray, KB0STN > ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Repeater-Builder/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Repeater-Builder/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
