[Milsurplus] Re: More Russki Radio...

[David Stinson]

A couple of the guys have asked:

> Just out of curiosity, what would happen if you used an automotive 
> inverter
> (the little 30-50 watt kind), rectified & filtered the output, ...

I've tried this twice.  It seems that auto-to-110VAC inverters are
built in several different ways.   The two I tried were the cheapie
"WallyWorld" lighter plug type.  I first used a bridge rectifier
on the output and they did not like that a bit.  Turns out that
the output of these inverters is single-ended.  The "neutral" blade
of the output is common with the negative "ground" side of
the input connection.  This being the case, only a half-wave
rectifier worked.  I used one of these to power my Australian
AR-8 and it worked fine, but this would not be useful on any
receiver that requires a floating B-.   The outputs of the
DC/DC converters I have are isolated, so can be configured
to provide floating B-, needed for receivers like the BC-348 and
BC-474, and for many 1920s and 1930s design transmitters.
Perhaps other inverters are isolated;
I haven't tried any others so far.

73 Dave S.