SSB installation help

[Radio University]

Bill,

In case Pete doesn't know who Eric is, he is the North American Distributor of the SCS Pactor Modems.

[NoTies]

Thanks for that. It's actually going to be easiest to ground to my keel bolts so no real problem. I did wonder if loosely woven copper wire such as 6mm oxygen free speaker cable would be as good as copper strip for the ground connection. Lots of surface area and a lot easier to run. Thoughts?

[Radio University]

Actually if your keel boat is bonded, you could have tuning problems due to ground loops. Also if the length of your ground wire is too long, it may radiate and cause tuning issues.

I would recommend using 3 inch wide copper strap. Try to keep it as short as possible.

[NoTies]

The keel isn't bonded and there is nothing else grounded on the boat so will this be OK?

[Alan Wheeler]

I did wonder if loosely woven copper wire such as 6mm oxygen free speaker cable would be as good as copper strip for the ground connection.

I am not going to enter the SSB install thing, it is a bit out of my experiance zone. But I can tell you, OFC is a sales gimmick. There is no difference between it and any other copper used in wire. Other sales gimicks found in the "Home HiFi snake oil department" are "directionalized copper", which has arrows printed on it's jacket so as you install it in the correct oriantation. This is because the electrons flow better in that direction.
"Low noise" copper wire. What loud noise copper sounds like I haven't been able to find out. RF shielded copper speaker wire. Signal wire yes, but speaker wire? yeah right. And then you have the cables that are designated by there price. The more you pay the better it is right? Like I know of people that pay $45/m for speaker cable. So it must be good. I do know of someone that paid $300 for a 1m interconect cable from CD to amp. The guy reckoned he could hear the difference. It was a "blind" test by the way.... The guy was blind.

[NoTies]

I saw this cable used by a ham operator and thought the loosely woven nature of would give me more surface area and it would be easier to run but by the sound of it copper strap will be cheaper so being a yachtie bum this appeals even more

[Alan Wheeler]

To an electrical current, the "surface area" is not of any importance. To RF, surface area is. But there are two points here. The earth does not have the RF signal, so surface area is not an issue. And the other point is, special wire called "Litz wire" is used for RF. It is fine strands each strand being insulated so as the surface area is maintained. If it was all bunched together as bare strands, the RF will "see" the conductor as one. The only purpose of multitudes of fine strands is flexability.
For an earth strap, flat copper is fine. But then any good sized conductor will be fine. The flat copper allows easy bolting to the earth terminal and the keel bolt.

[hellosailor]

Wheels-
"This is because the electrons flow better in that direction. "
That old myth? Wasn't physics revised back in the 60's or 70's, and they decided that electron acceptance holes are actually flowing, not the electrons? I'm Real Damned Sure we got taught that "flowing electrons" went out with Bohr's atom.

[Alan Wheeler]

Yeah I confused a guy in a HiFi shop one day. I said to him, so if I install this with a slight down hill gradient to it, it would help the elctrons even more huh?? He said yeah, but I could see the expression on his face as the little hamster was spinning that gear up top. But then I totaly stumped him with, but isn't the speaker signal AC? "Oh yes, he replied", sooo what happens when the electrons want to flow back along the cable? "ummmm",(hamster know having cardiac arrest) so in effect, this cable act's like a diode and would cause distortion. (hamster obviousely fell off the wheel as the guy stood speachless) I turned and walked out. I just love stiring up those HiFi wanna be know it alls.

[hellosailor]

Obviously, you need to separate the two wires to each speaker so that each one runs "downhill". And the you add this little magnetic electron booster pump to the return line, so raise the spent electrons (they're weaker) up sp they can flow downhill back to the speaker.

Wanna buy a pair? Wanna buy a distributorship?<WEG>

[btrayfors]

HelloSailor,

Can you explain the process whereby the "spent electrons", having been returned to the amplifier by the "little magnetic electron booster pump" (via the return line) are then re-energized so they can be sent back down the (accelerated) line to the speaker?

And, more importantly, once they have been thusly transformed and given a new identity needed to re-activate the speaker (presumably somewhere inside the amplifier), are they REALLY THE SAME ELECTRONS AS BEFORE?

I'm really confused about this.

Bill

[hellosailor]

Of course, Bill. You buy one of these special magnetic boxes and clamp it securely on one speaker lead, just one lead, the one carrying the electrons that are all tired out from making the speaker noisy. Then it will reinvigorate them and boost their quantum levels back to a higher level, so they can zip right back to the amplifier and do the same job all over again. Of course, since they are being re-energized you may have to turn down the volume control slightly, use less gain, and oh of course you'll save something on your power bill because you're using less current in the amp.

Of course these magnets are tuned for *electrons* not fuel, and should never be used on your fuel lines.

Act now, the opportunity to sew up a distributorship in the Chesapeake area will only be available for a limited time.<WEG>

[senormechanico]

I know this is really OT, but in some instances shielded speaker wire might be called for. Back in the '60's I was stationed in Pearl Harbor and I spent a few months working in the PH Hobby shop. It was a corrugated metal building and it had a PA system with several speakers. We could always tell when the USS Enterprise was in her slip nearly a mile away as the PA system would go "vvvvVVvZZZZVVvv" every few seconds as the Enterprise's radar scanned.
The speakers made the noise whether the PA system was turned on or not!


Steve B.

[btrayfors]

Steve B.

We're just bein' silly.

And, yes, speaker wires are wonderful antennae. They pick up all sorts of interesting stuff. You oughtta hear the ones on my boat when I fire the rig up on 75 meters :-))

Cheers,

Bill