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Automatic dehydrators

This is for the dehydrator experts out there...

What's the most maintenance-free transmission line dehydrator, and what's the difference between say, the Andrew MT-050 and the Model 1920 or Model 1930 in theory of operation?
 
How about a bottle of nitrogen for maintenance free? - unless you have a considerable leak that requires a lot of gas or have to shlep a bottle a long way.
 
Whatever you do, alarm it. A cheap and dirty is a oil-pressure switch set for 2lbs and hooked to your remote control's status alarm.
 
I had a DiElectric which gave zero problems for many years. Site was dismantled at 25 years, ity was still working. Got a hand full of PSA notrogen generators, but they require PM, fail if they don't get it, and are horrendusly expensive to fix.
 
ncradioeng said:
How about a bottle of nitrogen for maintenance free? - unless you have a considerable leak that requires a lot of gas or have to shlep a bottle a long way.

I kinda like this idea. I have never had to repair a compressor in a nitrogen bottle.
 
Everything is great until the site gets older and there's some small leaks in the system. Then it fun times with the nitrogen delivery truck. hehe
 
Nitrogen spoiler alert:

Can't find it but there's a paper on how nitrogen reacts to an arc and the insulation spacers used in heliax cables. Nasty things happen. It's suggested you use nitrogen to purge a line but maintain it with dry air.
 
NOW you tell me!

Seriously, I'd like to know where this paper is available.
 
Now that I can post again (and the RI server doesn’t think it’s still last Monday)…

I would too! Prove to myself I'm not hallucinating. It was a thread that showed up maybe a year ago in this or another board. The Radio-Info search function (and maybe archives) seems to be
missing a lot. One poster had a good handle on the chemistry.
 
Bengalsfan said:
I'd like to see it too. Been using the big N for the last 30 years as a pressurizer and never had any problems with it.

Basically, since Earth's atmosphere is 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen (with argon, carbon dioxide and few other elements in very small amounts), you can pretty much look at a bottle of nitrogen as being, roughly, air minus the oxygen.

Elemental pure nitrogen is well-known for being inert and unreactive with other elements in almost every case.
Oxygen, on the other hand, is a whole different matter, LOL! Fire is oxidation!

For that reason, I can't imagine how a 21/78 oxygen/nitrogen mix (IOW, air) could somehow be LESS reactive in a volatile (arcing) situation than nitrogen by itself. Sounds counter-intuitive, and I'd like to be enlightened.

Personally, I have never experienced any sort of transmission line damage that could be blamed on nitrogen, but air can keep an arc going for hours. Or until the line burns up ;-).

Kind Regards,
David
 
My experience has been, when an arc occurs, the damage is due to the arc itself, moreso than the dielectric in the line. It's possible that somewhere in the charcoaled Teflon and slagged copper, there's oxide using dry air and none using nitrogen. But compared to the damage you typically see, it's a non-issue. Nitrogen will ionize, and thus sustain an arc just like dry air will. Of course, moisture will do somore quickly.
When the pieces of the molten combiner fell on the manuals and set fire to them, I wasn't too concerned with what was in the line, only that lightning had destroyed it to the degree that the reflected power into the combiner heated it up substantially.
 
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