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Old 02-15-13, 03:33 PM   #8
stevehull
Steve Hull
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: hilly, tree covered Arcadia, OK USA
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Wow - this discussion takes me way, way back to the '60s. I knew well that RG-8 could handle 2,000 watts with ease and had friends that were trying to wire up a "shack" for late night CW contests (ham radio stuff where you are up all night).

The RG-8 was already in the ground - in fact in conduit (to a defunct antenna tower), so we used it to pipe out 120 V ac. I think it was about 150-200 feet.

We tested it by putting on 1200 W electric space heaters until we saw a voltage drop. If I recall, we put on 4-5 of them before we saw any voltage drop. The cable was not even warm.

We also hooked up an intercom system from the house to the "shack" that used the old wired intercoms on AC systems.

Later on - and in an arena that was completely different I recalled this and used RG-8 to multiplex signals when we used burst communication in very short pulses. The pulse (20 msec) was about 20-30 kW in ERP and only used once or twice a day. The burst was also in Rg-8 coax that was used on a 240 V system drawing about 40 amps. No code inspectors were present, not even thought of . . .

Coax is used in a lot of undeveloped countries for household power as it is readily available and cheap. Some people even use it to wire their homes. The center conductor looks about like AWG #10 or so and the braid must have the equivalent cross section.

Steve
ex WA1LHT
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