What dielectric strength is required for a variable capacitors in a 100W T-network antenna tuner?How can I safely transmit without an antenna tuner or SWR meter?Variable phase antennaDo vacuum variable capacitors have higher Q than air variable capacitors?Where does one find high-voltage variable capacitors and inductors for RF?TS-590 Antenna Tuner ProtocolDo a toroid's specs matter much in an antenna matching transformer?How should this SWR meter's directional coupler work?Balun and tuner configuration for multiband dipoleAntenna tuner designWhat is an antenna tuner? Why bother with resonant antennas in the first place?
What does it mean to describe someone as a butt steak?
Paid for article while in US on F1 visa?
I Accidentally Deleted a Stock Terminal Theme
Can the number of solutions to a system of PDEs be bounded using the characteristic variety?
What is the word for reserving something for yourself before others do?
Operational amplifier as comparator at high frequency
Why am I being followed by a political opponent in Twitter?
Linear Path Optimization with Two Dependent Variables
Why does Kotter return in Welcome Back Kotter?
dbcc cleantable batch size explanation
How to format long polynomial?
Can a vampire attack twice with their claws using multiattack?
How do I deal with an unproductive colleague in a small company?
How bulky would the original autograph of the Torah been?
How much RAM could one put in a typical 80386 setup?
Why is consensus so controversial in Britain?
Mutually beneficial digestive system symbiotes
Rock identification in KY
Doing something right before you need it - expression for this?
How is it possible to have an ability score that is less than 3?
Question relative to pads for capacitors - high frequency
Accidentally leaked the solution to an assignment, what to do now? (I'm the prof)
Could gravitational lensing be used to protect a spaceship from a laser?
Modeling an IP Address
What dielectric strength is required for a variable capacitors in a 100W T-network antenna tuner?
How can I safely transmit without an antenna tuner or SWR meter?Variable phase antennaDo vacuum variable capacitors have higher Q than air variable capacitors?Where does one find high-voltage variable capacitors and inductors for RF?TS-590 Antenna Tuner ProtocolDo a toroid's specs matter much in an antenna matching transformer?How should this SWR meter's directional coupler work?Balun and tuner configuration for multiband dipoleAntenna tuner designWhat is an antenna tuner? Why bother with resonant antennas in the first place?
$begingroup$
I would like to build a 100W T-network antenna tuner:

I have a 12-pole wafer switch, 12.5 meters of enameled copper wire (d=1.5mm) and a pair of 12-365pF variable capacitors rated 200V DC (dielectric strength) 250MΩ (insulation resistance).
There are some doubts regarding the capacitors. They are quite small (about 3x3x3 cm) and the plates are placed very close to each other. I have MFJ-971 tuner and it uses much larger capacitors which have much more space between the plates. Although this tuner is rated 200W.
I believe there are three problems. The first one is that the capacitors voltage rate is provided only for DC, but I'm going to apply AC. I don't know whether it's possible to convert DC rate to AC rate. The second problem is that I don't know how to estimate the maximum AC voltage that will be applied to the capacitors in the T-network. Finally, I could just build a tuner and check whether the capacitors will arc, but I don't know how to do it without the risk of damaging the transceiver (Yaesu FT-891).
Basically my question is: how to determine (theoretically, experimentally or both) whether it's safe to use given capacitors in this network?
diy antenna-tuner
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
I would like to build a 100W T-network antenna tuner:

I have a 12-pole wafer switch, 12.5 meters of enameled copper wire (d=1.5mm) and a pair of 12-365pF variable capacitors rated 200V DC (dielectric strength) 250MΩ (insulation resistance).
There are some doubts regarding the capacitors. They are quite small (about 3x3x3 cm) and the plates are placed very close to each other. I have MFJ-971 tuner and it uses much larger capacitors which have much more space between the plates. Although this tuner is rated 200W.
I believe there are three problems. The first one is that the capacitors voltage rate is provided only for DC, but I'm going to apply AC. I don't know whether it's possible to convert DC rate to AC rate. The second problem is that I don't know how to estimate the maximum AC voltage that will be applied to the capacitors in the T-network. Finally, I could just build a tuner and check whether the capacitors will arc, but I don't know how to do it without the risk of damaging the transceiver (Yaesu FT-891).
Basically my question is: how to determine (theoretically, experimentally or both) whether it's safe to use given capacitors in this network?
diy antenna-tuner
$endgroup$
$begingroup$
Need to know the impedance you will match to determine the voltage across the capacitors. Or, tell us about the antenna so we can estimate the impedance.
$endgroup$
– Brian K1LI
7 hours ago
$begingroup$
At the moment I have two antennas that require a tuner. The first one is a long wire antenna (23.5 meters + 8 meters counterpoise). The length was chosen so that the impedance should be relatively low on any band from 80 to 10m. The second one is a multiband (40-10m) inverted delta loop, 38 meters total length, the feed point is in one of the upper angles. It supposed to be about 120 Ohm on 40m, although I'm not certain about other bands. Also I would like to use a tuner for a multiband 7-10m long vertical antenna (fishing rod + tripod + wire + radials), although currently I don't have one.
$endgroup$
– Aleksander Alekseev - R2AUK
6 hours ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
I would like to build a 100W T-network antenna tuner:

I have a 12-pole wafer switch, 12.5 meters of enameled copper wire (d=1.5mm) and a pair of 12-365pF variable capacitors rated 200V DC (dielectric strength) 250MΩ (insulation resistance).
There are some doubts regarding the capacitors. They are quite small (about 3x3x3 cm) and the plates are placed very close to each other. I have MFJ-971 tuner and it uses much larger capacitors which have much more space between the plates. Although this tuner is rated 200W.
I believe there are three problems. The first one is that the capacitors voltage rate is provided only for DC, but I'm going to apply AC. I don't know whether it's possible to convert DC rate to AC rate. The second problem is that I don't know how to estimate the maximum AC voltage that will be applied to the capacitors in the T-network. Finally, I could just build a tuner and check whether the capacitors will arc, but I don't know how to do it without the risk of damaging the transceiver (Yaesu FT-891).
Basically my question is: how to determine (theoretically, experimentally or both) whether it's safe to use given capacitors in this network?
diy antenna-tuner
$endgroup$
I would like to build a 100W T-network antenna tuner:

I have a 12-pole wafer switch, 12.5 meters of enameled copper wire (d=1.5mm) and a pair of 12-365pF variable capacitors rated 200V DC (dielectric strength) 250MΩ (insulation resistance).
There are some doubts regarding the capacitors. They are quite small (about 3x3x3 cm) and the plates are placed very close to each other. I have MFJ-971 tuner and it uses much larger capacitors which have much more space between the plates. Although this tuner is rated 200W.
I believe there are three problems. The first one is that the capacitors voltage rate is provided only for DC, but I'm going to apply AC. I don't know whether it's possible to convert DC rate to AC rate. The second problem is that I don't know how to estimate the maximum AC voltage that will be applied to the capacitors in the T-network. Finally, I could just build a tuner and check whether the capacitors will arc, but I don't know how to do it without the risk of damaging the transceiver (Yaesu FT-891).
Basically my question is: how to determine (theoretically, experimentally or both) whether it's safe to use given capacitors in this network?
diy antenna-tuner
diy antenna-tuner
edited 7 hours ago
Aleksander Alekseev - R2AUK
asked 7 hours ago
Aleksander Alekseev - R2AUKAleksander Alekseev - R2AUK
6908
6908
$begingroup$
Need to know the impedance you will match to determine the voltage across the capacitors. Or, tell us about the antenna so we can estimate the impedance.
$endgroup$
– Brian K1LI
7 hours ago
$begingroup$
At the moment I have two antennas that require a tuner. The first one is a long wire antenna (23.5 meters + 8 meters counterpoise). The length was chosen so that the impedance should be relatively low on any band from 80 to 10m. The second one is a multiband (40-10m) inverted delta loop, 38 meters total length, the feed point is in one of the upper angles. It supposed to be about 120 Ohm on 40m, although I'm not certain about other bands. Also I would like to use a tuner for a multiband 7-10m long vertical antenna (fishing rod + tripod + wire + radials), although currently I don't have one.
$endgroup$
– Aleksander Alekseev - R2AUK
6 hours ago
add a comment |
$begingroup$
Need to know the impedance you will match to determine the voltage across the capacitors. Or, tell us about the antenna so we can estimate the impedance.
$endgroup$
– Brian K1LI
7 hours ago
$begingroup$
At the moment I have two antennas that require a tuner. The first one is a long wire antenna (23.5 meters + 8 meters counterpoise). The length was chosen so that the impedance should be relatively low on any band from 80 to 10m. The second one is a multiband (40-10m) inverted delta loop, 38 meters total length, the feed point is in one of the upper angles. It supposed to be about 120 Ohm on 40m, although I'm not certain about other bands. Also I would like to use a tuner for a multiband 7-10m long vertical antenna (fishing rod + tripod + wire + radials), although currently I don't have one.
$endgroup$
– Aleksander Alekseev - R2AUK
6 hours ago
$begingroup$
Need to know the impedance you will match to determine the voltage across the capacitors. Or, tell us about the antenna so we can estimate the impedance.
$endgroup$
– Brian K1LI
7 hours ago
$begingroup$
Need to know the impedance you will match to determine the voltage across the capacitors. Or, tell us about the antenna so we can estimate the impedance.
$endgroup$
– Brian K1LI
7 hours ago
$begingroup$
At the moment I have two antennas that require a tuner. The first one is a long wire antenna (23.5 meters + 8 meters counterpoise). The length was chosen so that the impedance should be relatively low on any band from 80 to 10m. The second one is a multiband (40-10m) inverted delta loop, 38 meters total length, the feed point is in one of the upper angles. It supposed to be about 120 Ohm on 40m, although I'm not certain about other bands. Also I would like to use a tuner for a multiband 7-10m long vertical antenna (fishing rod + tripod + wire + radials), although currently I don't have one.
$endgroup$
– Aleksander Alekseev - R2AUK
6 hours ago
$begingroup$
At the moment I have two antennas that require a tuner. The first one is a long wire antenna (23.5 meters + 8 meters counterpoise). The length was chosen so that the impedance should be relatively low on any band from 80 to 10m. The second one is a multiband (40-10m) inverted delta loop, 38 meters total length, the feed point is in one of the upper angles. It supposed to be about 120 Ohm on 40m, although I'm not certain about other bands. Also I would like to use a tuner for a multiband 7-10m long vertical antenna (fishing rod + tripod + wire + radials), although currently I don't have one.
$endgroup$
– Aleksander Alekseev - R2AUK
6 hours ago
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
$begingroup$
I made a NEC model of an antenna with the dimensions of your "long wire" on 14.2MHz, found the values of C1, L1 and C2 that produce a 50$Omega$ match and simulated the network to observe the voltages across the capacitors with 100W dissipated in the load. The voltage across C1 was 220VRMS, over 300V peak. Given all the variables that I did not evaluate, plus good design practice to allow considerable margin, I would say that your capacitors will not support 100W transmissions.
Qualitatively, this result agrees with the 500VRMS, minimum, recommended in the 100W Z-match in the ARRL Handbook.
$endgroup$
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function ()
return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function ()
StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix)
StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["$", "$"], ["\\(","\\)"]]);
);
);
, "mathjax-editing");
StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function ()
return StackExchange.using("schematics", function ()
StackExchange.schematics.init();
);
, "cicuitlab");
StackExchange.ready(function()
var channelOptions =
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "520"
;
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
createEditor();
);
else
createEditor();
);
function createEditor()
StackExchange.prepareEditor(
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader:
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
,
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
);
);
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fham.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f13198%2fwhat-dielectric-strength-is-required-for-a-variable-capacitors-in-a-100w-t-netwo%23new-answer', 'question_page');
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
$begingroup$
I made a NEC model of an antenna with the dimensions of your "long wire" on 14.2MHz, found the values of C1, L1 and C2 that produce a 50$Omega$ match and simulated the network to observe the voltages across the capacitors with 100W dissipated in the load. The voltage across C1 was 220VRMS, over 300V peak. Given all the variables that I did not evaluate, plus good design practice to allow considerable margin, I would say that your capacitors will not support 100W transmissions.
Qualitatively, this result agrees with the 500VRMS, minimum, recommended in the 100W Z-match in the ARRL Handbook.
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
I made a NEC model of an antenna with the dimensions of your "long wire" on 14.2MHz, found the values of C1, L1 and C2 that produce a 50$Omega$ match and simulated the network to observe the voltages across the capacitors with 100W dissipated in the load. The voltage across C1 was 220VRMS, over 300V peak. Given all the variables that I did not evaluate, plus good design practice to allow considerable margin, I would say that your capacitors will not support 100W transmissions.
Qualitatively, this result agrees with the 500VRMS, minimum, recommended in the 100W Z-match in the ARRL Handbook.
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
I made a NEC model of an antenna with the dimensions of your "long wire" on 14.2MHz, found the values of C1, L1 and C2 that produce a 50$Omega$ match and simulated the network to observe the voltages across the capacitors with 100W dissipated in the load. The voltage across C1 was 220VRMS, over 300V peak. Given all the variables that I did not evaluate, plus good design practice to allow considerable margin, I would say that your capacitors will not support 100W transmissions.
Qualitatively, this result agrees with the 500VRMS, minimum, recommended in the 100W Z-match in the ARRL Handbook.
$endgroup$
I made a NEC model of an antenna with the dimensions of your "long wire" on 14.2MHz, found the values of C1, L1 and C2 that produce a 50$Omega$ match and simulated the network to observe the voltages across the capacitors with 100W dissipated in the load. The voltage across C1 was 220VRMS, over 300V peak. Given all the variables that I did not evaluate, plus good design practice to allow considerable margin, I would say that your capacitors will not support 100W transmissions.
Qualitatively, this result agrees with the 500VRMS, minimum, recommended in the 100W Z-match in the ARRL Handbook.
answered 5 hours ago
Brian K1LIBrian K1LI
1,557114
1,557114
add a comment |
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to Amateur Radio Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fham.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f13198%2fwhat-dielectric-strength-is-required-for-a-variable-capacitors-in-a-100w-t-netwo%23new-answer', 'question_page');
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
$begingroup$
Need to know the impedance you will match to determine the voltage across the capacitors. Or, tell us about the antenna so we can estimate the impedance.
$endgroup$
– Brian K1LI
7 hours ago
$begingroup$
At the moment I have two antennas that require a tuner. The first one is a long wire antenna (23.5 meters + 8 meters counterpoise). The length was chosen so that the impedance should be relatively low on any band from 80 to 10m. The second one is a multiband (40-10m) inverted delta loop, 38 meters total length, the feed point is in one of the upper angles. It supposed to be about 120 Ohm on 40m, although I'm not certain about other bands. Also I would like to use a tuner for a multiband 7-10m long vertical antenna (fishing rod + tripod + wire + radials), although currently I don't have one.
$endgroup$
– Aleksander Alekseev - R2AUK
6 hours ago