Radios and Surge Protector = Static

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Jono40141

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Have any of you had the problem of interference from the surge protector when plugged in? I seem to have a static radio when its plugged into the surge protector. When I am using batteries it seems to be just a bit clearer. What do you guys think about this? Am I crazy or am I truly getting some sort of back feed from the surge protector? I think I may have found what the problem is with my radio.
 

cpuerror

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Surge protectors are passive devices. Cheap ones are little more then extension cords, more expensive ones have some filtering built in. if you are getting noise when you plug in your adaptor, the noise is probably coming from either the adaptor or the outlet. I have the cord from mine wrapped around a ferrite and it helps reduce the noise esp on the low band.
 

Jono40141

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So, I guess regular plug ins wont do this? My surge protector is a nice brand power sentry and it was pretty expensive. Where do I get ferrite. And do you just wrap the surge protector cord up?
 

kb2vxa

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Is the static coming FROM the surge protector or is it coming THROUGH it from the AC mains? What happens when you plug in direct without the suppressor? If you determine the noise is from the suppressor it is defective.

That was easy enough now wasn't it? (;->)
 
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Most likely the protector uses MOV's across the line, as they "fire" to protect the equipment they create microscopic points that can generate tiny arc's inside the MOV. It almost sounds like a powerline insulator leaking. Generally it's time to retire it to file 13.
 

cpuerror

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I have the wire coming out of the AC adaptor wrapped, just a couple inches before the plug goes into the radio. I have found that to be effective.
 

kb2vxa

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Never mask a problem, FIX the problem! Anything else is asking for trouble. A defective protection device offers NO protection. Open it up, snip out the MOVs and just use it as a power strip.
 

Allan_Love_Jr

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Alot of your problems could also some from the Power lines themselves. Every time it would Rain or Snow I would pick up a Huge amount of Electrical static from the Power lines. I had no choice but to call the power Co. Problem solved.
 

Zaratsu

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You may have a defective surge strip. I saw that you stated that it was a well-known brand. Brand aside, it may still have been produced in a chinese factory not up to the company's normal standards. (hey grundig used to make radios, now they are just a brand.) Price aside, you may not have gotten what you thought you paid for.

Most people have a variety of powerstrips/surge protectors, have you tried another one?

Does the Powerstrip have coax and RJ-11 (phone) connectors? if so, they may be "leaking" RF by some fluke.

I have a few old PowerWasher strips. (are they still around?) They are hand-me-downs from my audiophile pop's when he upgraded to an actual power-conditioner (whatever that is). Protector, washer, conditioner, starting to sound like my wife's shopping list. ;)
 

kb2vxa

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Hi again Dan and all,

By now we've probably scared him away. (;->) Actually this isn't an argument or a war of the tech heads, it's a compilation of information so when you put together all we've said all bases are covered.

Just to comment on a couple of valid points, first of all those MOVs like all components come from the same factory, get branded in a sorting house, are distributed wholesale and stuck in all sorts of things regardless of brand. Bottom line is while there may be quality in a brand (the final product) the base parts are all the same.

Another valid point is those combo strips could possibly transfer RF, line noise, or whatever by proximity coupling. I doubt that's the problem here, there are two possibilities, line noise being passed through or generated by the surge protector itself. The only way to find out is like I said, remove the device and plug in direct to the same outlet. Sorry I forgot to mention that little detail before, another outlet even in the same room may not be on the same branch circuit and we've gone down that process of elimination road many times before. Maybe that's why I didn't mention it. (;->)

I remember Power Washer or the name at least but there are many brands of strips having both surge protection and RF filtering. Those combo strips having protection and filtering for telco lines included simply consolidate components into a single unit and both are used for computing devices. Since such devices generate RF hash you really don't want it backing up into the lines and interfering with other devices on the line or radiating and interfering with wireless devices like scanners. Sound familiar?

Tell your pop "thank you" for the above reason and while you're at it tell him surge suppression is fine but there's no reason to filter the mains serving audio equipment unless there's a pesky CBer in the neighborhood and in that case... oh never mind.

A power conditioner is simply a UPS without battery backup. All it does is change the AC mains current to low voltage DC and back to AC again which completely isolates the load from the line as if it were powered by it's own alternator. (Generators produce DC.) Put a battery across the DC and you have a UPS. The mains input can be anything from 90 to 140 volts (approximate) while the output is a constant 120 volts making it the compact solid state equivalent of a heavy, bulky and noisy constant voltage transformer. Yeah, the darn things hum like they're full of bees.

Again there's no reason to use one on audio equipment so at the risk of sounding like an unintended insult some audiophiles are audiophools. Oxygen free copper wire? Never heard of it but I heard of Monster and find their deceptive marketing claims somewhat amusing.

Hey, print out this post for him with this paragraph deleted and when the urge to kill me subsides he just may give you that power conditioner too for your computer which is it's intended use in the first place. (;->)
 
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