W8SDZ@SIMTEL20.ARPA (Keith Petersen) (03/17/85)
If you use a squarewave a.c. power source with most solid-state electronic gear you won't get full output from your D.C. power supply. This will result in a decrease in the ability of the regulators to deal with power line voltage drops. To prove this, measure the D.C. output (before the regulators) on your electronic gear - first with regular A.C. power and then with squarewave A.C. You'll find that the D.C. output is LOWER with squarewave A.C. feeding the power supply. Reason: most solid-state power supplies use capacitor-input filtering which means they depend upon the "peak" A.C., not the average. When you use squarewave A.C. the peaks are just not there. The typical 120v a.c. power line has a peak voltage of around 140 volts. Don't forget "120vac" is RMS, not peak. --Keith