[time-nuts] 60 Hz measurement party

[Mark Spencer]

I once worked on a project in India where we had electrical problems that went 
away when reportedly the building owners watered the building ground system.   I 
never got an explanation if there was supposed to be a  functional neutral 
connection or if the ground system was serving as the neutral.  


To get back on the 60 Hz measurement topic, I tried measuring the phase 
difference between the 60 Hz line here in BC and the 1pps output of my 
thunderbolt and a sample of the results are shown in the attached file.

I'm not sure if the results I am seeing are  valid or not.    My signal source 
is a 16 volt doorbell transformer that feeds a voltage divider which in turn 
feeds my 5370B with an approx 2 volt sine wave.   Setting the trigger point on 
the 5370B to 0 volts appears to provide the best results and the sine wave from 
the voltage divider looks to be clean on my scope.  But I'm wondering if changes 
in line voltage could be confusing things.   


Regards
Mark Spencer






 


----- Original Message ----
From: Morris Odell <vilgotch at bigpond.net.au>
To: time-nuts at febo.com
Sent: Mon, June 27, 2011 4:31:26 AM
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] 60 Hz measurement party

> >mean a second wire ?  Surely you do not mean they are using the earth
> (dirt) as a
> >return path ?  That would be terribly inefficient !  

Down here in Australia, Single Wire Earth Return (SWER) is common for long
rural lines. They run at 12.7 kv (one phase of a 22 kv 3 phase line). At the
consumer end there is a pole mounted transformer and a fenced off earth
stake. It seems to work reasonably well even in dry conditions but you
occasionally hear stories of a large quadruped coming to nasty end if they
get inside the enclosure. Obviously there would be a radial potential field
in the ground and on the surface and quite a voltage can develop across
their legs.

Morris



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