Would a power conditioner be overkill?

Not sure what you mean by "conditioner". Other than a surge protection power strip you probably don't need anything else. All my equipment here works fine with no conditioning.

Some power conditioners are operate to keep the voltage constant and some to filter and preserve the power sinewave. I once used a constant voltage transformer on a ham repeater system and had a problem with hum as a result. This transformer distorted the waveform which introduced harmonics into the power line which somehow found their way into the audio system. Eliminating the transformer eliminated the hum.

Neil

If you're in a populated area with reliable power the conditioner might be a waste of time. Most power I've had in cities is very stable, and there are ways of monitoring it on meters.

One FM transmitter I worked for had a power meter on the panel and the exact power voltage could be watched and noted. The fluctuation was very small.

60Hz wall clocks are a good indicator. They will drift due to power in-accuracies, but the electric company adjusts and over a one-month period the clock should average the right time.

People way out in the sticks far from the source might want power conditioning to correct for possible sags.

An uninteruptible power supply might be of more use.

I was going to say what Carl said, get yourself a good UPS, I run 2 in my studio.

Thanks for the great advice guys! Uninterupted Power supply it is! then. I am just trying to do as much as I can to reduce any kind of noise from getting into my audio chain!

GrooTheWanderer

All Who Wander Are Not Lost 🙂

UPS's are great for uninterrupted power.  But most don't have very good surge protection (standalone ones have much higher transient ratings).  I'd go with a good surge protector first, and if you need battery power, add the UPS.

I have to second ArtisianRadio's statement.

When you do go with a UPS, steer clear of this one: APC BE550G and anything in the same chassis; they use different capacity batteries, and the same circuitry - the circuitry will go out at the most inopportune times.  I'm basing this on the 2 I had personally, then when I mentioned it to our IT guy, he said that they had about 1000 of them that were popping left and right they had gotten for deskside UPS's...

Our City has its own power distribution, buying power in bulk.  For the most part the power is pretty clean but we have had some strange problems linked to harmonics back fed into the lines from industrial process.

One of my traffic signals would regularly act up.  The Electric Department couldn't put their finger on my suspected power problems.  So, I put an oscilloscope in the traffic cabinet with a video feed back to my shop.

When the call came in that the signal was acting screwy, the video of the O'scope showed lots of distortion on the power line.  The source was tracked down to a business using a 3 phase power inverter to operate a 1500 horse power electric motor for a batch mixer.  When this thing kicked on, the current on the 7200 volt feeder would jump up 250 amps.  That's some power!!!

For that problem, the Electric Department moved them to a different feeder.  In another case it was tracked down to a capacitor bank that automatically switched at 10:00 pm every weeknight.  My traffic signal would fault and go to flash.  That took a while to figure out as the "switching" was an instantaneous problem.  I put a ferroresonant transformer conditioner in the cabinet to prove it was a power line problem afterwhich a search turned up the automated switching of the capacitor bank.  The key was the time this happened would always shift 1 hour when Daylight Savings time changed.  The switching clock didn't so the switching time would move 1 hour in the Fall and back in the Spring.

But, even small supplies like computers and dimmers can add up to a lot of harmonic distortion on the power lines.  An O'scope on the AC line may show you problems you didn't know you had.

Hey guys,

            Thanks for all the advice and info. Mram1500, thanks for your post to, alot of good info in there. This is what I ended up getting. For now anyhoo, it will have to do.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Live-Wire-Power-strip-with-10-foot-cord-106080807-i1790187.gc

It also has a emi/rfi interference filter which is cool. My sound guy was over last night to train me on the mixer and other equipment and I think I am absorbing things purty good as he is a great teacher.

Thanks again guys! Yall dont have any idea how much I value your advice and guidence !

Groo

There was a dramatic sight out front last week as mammoth sized cherry picker cranes put men up in this giant tree for a removal that took all day.

Right alongside a power pole electric gouy had his picker up to the transformer where he took some power lines out of the way for the day then replaced them when the tree was gone.

The electric guy was able to mess with the power wires without shutting off the ten houses being served, including the Internet Building, home of KDX Worldround Radio! I did wonder if I should shut down for safety, but I put my confidence in the guy on the pole and there was no problem.

I wondered if my carrier current signal might get in the way, but I don't think he was monitoring the wires, even though he wore a headset microphone. I think he was probably on a cell-phone frequency, up in the giggle-hurts.

I have worked in commercial broadcast radio for 40 years this year.  In all these years I have never worked anywhere that a power conditioner was used for any piece or gear, either in the studios or at transmitter sites. 

My guess is that you receive musicians catalogs in the mail (as do I) from places like Musicians Friend, American Musical, Guitar Center, etc. and among all the gear that have an extensive list of power conditioners that promise all sorts of marvelous things.   The difference is, these are meant for LIVE musicians, plugging tons of power hungry gear into all sorts of crappy outlets, bad wiring, cheap power strips, under all sorts of badly wired lighting both at the venue (which could be a two-bit bar held together tiwh duck tape and sheetrock screws) and the stuff the band members have cobbled together trying to get by on the cheap. Often no grounding, polarity reversed, power dips from wiring in the building that can't take the load drawn by the band gear, etc.  I've played in bands, as has my Son. We're very used to these conditions.  These conditions rarely exist in a broadcast setting, even in your home.  The stations I work for now, an AM directional and 100,000 watt FM have not one power conditioner anywhere.  We DO however have numerous UPS units.  Naturally, being commercial radio we have relatively large capacity units, with tons of surge and lightning protection.  The last equipment we had that got damaged by lightning was in 1988, when we were in a different studio on the top floor of a bank, and we took a direct hit on the roof.  Back then we still had an RCA tube board in production, a McMartin in the air studio, and tons of what now would be considered antique and collectable gear.  No UPS or lightning protectionn back then.  Since we moved to the new studios in 1989 no issues.  the UPS units keep sensitive gear protected and also keep it running when the power goes out. Sensitive things like computers and satellite receivers stay powered up, as do the consoles, STL units, etc so we can actually remain on the air for about an hour with no power and can power down the gear before the equipment loses back up power.  I'm guessing with tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear not needing power conditioning, you probably don't either.  But a UPS unit, yes. 

In my Part 15 AM I also have a UPS unit, I believe it's an APC 1500 something (can't remember the letters) it will keep me on the air for a long time if the power goes out.  It's it's going to be a long term outage I have a backup generator that will keep important things in the house (fridge, sump pump, etc) and the radio station on the air for as long as I keep it fueled up.  These generators are amazingly cheap at places like Fleet Supply stores, etc. You don't need a brand name like a Honda, etc. Honda for 1000 watts was like $900, a store brand unit for 3500 watts was $400. 

UPS yes. Power conditioner, no.  Unless you're running with the crappiest power known to man.  I'm in a town of 600 people, with a power infrastructure that's a million years old.  My house was built over 100 years ago and we have knob and tube wiring from the 30's in here. (Look that up on Google if you don't know what it is) and I have NO power issues.

BTW, note that it's the AC cycle that is what clocks and other devices rely on to remain accurate, not voltage. AC is 60 cycles per second.  When you have power dips, brown outs, etc the cycle rarely if ever fluctuates, but the voltage does. 

Tim in Bovey

Iron Range Country Radio