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Stormin’s Work Bench (Cross Strikes resolutions for Optilator
& Optelator II) 5/26/04 The Optilator &
Optelator II is a well known product in the AM/ FM broadcast, Dairy Farming
and the Power Utility industry. The rest of the world is
not really exposed to this product. It
is a pricy product, but for good reason. The nature of it’s design is two
separate PC boards that are miniature phone systems separated by fiber optics. In the AM/FM industry this product became a
salvation to Burk, Gentner, and Sine Systems.
The reasons are quite obvious.
In a 650 foot tower, a direct strike by lightning is an imminent blow
out. It is a matter of time before
these communications equipment will expire.
The Optelator has become a requirement by most Chief Engineers to
install this device to prevent even a direct strike that destroys these
monitoring systems. The purpose of the
Optelator is to prevent a path way to ground by isolating the phone company
phone line with 5” of fiber optics from the modems. In this manner we eliminate a ground
loop. Something very rare happens
sometimes in the AM/FM industry.
Because of the nature of the 100% hit ratio, plus direct impact by
lightning, which constitutes extremely high risk, and also because of soil
content and the lack of attention due by the phone company for improved grounding,
a rare phenomenon occurs. In 30 years
of phone line protection, I have never seen or heard of cross strikes on
phone lines. In this industry, it is
possible. In the last 20 years selling
the Optelator I have seen approx 1500 units that get damaged by this
phenomenon, and all of them repairable.
Because of this, I have invented a specially designed surge
suppression devices that does not need to be grounded (Telco-ISO2WDTB-RJ11-Optelator). It is only designed to deal with cross
strike problems. You plug it in
up-line from the Optelator, and it creates a bit of impedance on the line
with enough protection designed for AC power, which forces the cross strike
to occur inside this device, instead of doing it in the Optelator. This device has heat sinks plus is heavily
loaded with protection across the line in four stages plus an isolation
transformer. It does effect the
operating voltage and current by Ma Bell but, the Optelator compensates that
on the output. If a cross strike
occurs, we want it to do it in this device that can handle this rare
problem. Another answer to this
problem, and I am not alone in saying this.
If you can only get the phone company to come out and properly ground
their de-mark, plus apply chemical based ground rod system tied directly into
your single point grounding system it will solve this problem, naturally I am
dreaming. The power utility industry
has also had this problem, but their percentage has been next to nothing
compared to the AM/FM broadcast industry.
For your information, the reason the utility uses the Optelator is to
eliminate a 10,000 volt differential that does exist between their lift
stations and the phone company de-mark box.
So just imagine how long it takes to fry a modem, forget the lightning
issue. The last thing is the Dairy
Industry, mostly noise issues and phone lines dropped due to lack of
power. The Optelator is always
on and cleans the line of noise by eliminating the grounding differential. Sincerely John E. Pecore
E-Mail:
john.pecore@storminprotection.com President
Stormin Protection
Products Inc. 727-823-6100 |
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Stormin’s Work Bench Sine Systems & Optelator
corrective action 5/26/04 The Optelator II is
a well known product in the AM/ FM broadcast industry. But! Optelator II will work
with Sine Equipment, but with a little
effort on your part it will work. 90%
of all modems the Optelator II will perform, but this year the popularity of
the Sine Equipment develop a problem for us.
It is now resolved. I had two Engineers that called, one I could not
help, but the 2nd Engineer took matters in his own hands. An Engineer Mr.
Brian Hill, from Back Yard
Broadcasting in Pennsylvania discovered that it was not the Optelator being
the problem, rather a reprogramming is requirement for ring sensitivity for
the Sine Equipment. Example: RFC1 B unit: Access memory address 1014 Enter value (10) then hit pound (#) This changes the Factory
Default of (0) = 1.79 volts
sensitivity to 4.66 volts sensitivity. While I was on the phone
with Brian, he proved to me it worked.
He dialed up the Sine Equipment and it made a connection on the first
ring. Brian’s Fear was, could
that be a problem because any transit surges higher the 1.79 will get
through. My answer was quit
simple. That is impossible, because
our link is fiber optics, and that means there is no possibility or any
transits at all can even get
anything above 4.66 volts. This concludes a happy
ending and a new beginning to solve the equipment interface problems. If you have any questions like this please
contact me regarding the Optelator II. Sincerely John E. Pecore President Stormin Protection
Products inc. 888-471-1038 |
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Solution
for Sine Systems Keep
in mind, End of life for this product. |
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Phone: 727-823-6100 Toll Free:
888-471-1038 SIP Phone: 529-2299 Fax: 727-823-6044
Email:
(&)Sip:jpecore@earthlink.net |
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To contact us: |
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We have some
solutions, and interesting ideas regarding the Optelator. Also, due to the
fact that land lines for phones, are all but gone, so this is an end of
product for the Optelator. |
