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previous: bob My friend is moving to India for sc... -- 2/7/1998 8:14 AM

Re: STEP DOWN TRANSFORMERS

2/8/1998 9:48 PM
GVB	Re: STEP DOWN TRANSFORMERS I used to live in Pakistan about 15 years ago, so I may be able to help you out. There are three types of power transformers he may wish to purchase. The first are tiny "wall wart" types. These are inexpensive, low wattage types, for use with small appliances (radio's, etc...). Radio Shack used to sell these, but you'll have to check to make sure. The second type is a regular bulky, heavy type that you see in tube amps etc... These are expensive, and can be used for higher power appliances such as TV's, high-powered amps etc... If he does buy these, make sure they are protected by some type of fuse! I have see two of them blow ($300+ US), from a broken appliance being connected to them. If you consider that in the US an average circit breaker will take about 1800W of power before it blows, the transformer will only be able to handle a fraction of this, and may be damaged if the load is drawing large amounts of current. As for TV's, as far as I know, India uses the PAL system instead of the NTSC type used here. This means that his TV may only be useful to play video tapes from his NTSC VCR. I would suggest sellings these items and purchasing multi-format versions overseas. You can rent tapes (English) over there, and there are English stations availiable in many places. If possible I would suggest a stop over in Singapor as it is duty free and electonics are dirt cheap, or at least they were when I visited. The third type, I'm not too familiar with. These are extreamly costly power supplies that convert the 240V 50Hz to 120V 60Hz. I sure could have used one over there. At the time I had a TI 99/4A computer, and more often then not, it would crash after several hours of programming. Since the tape(cassette) it used for perminant storage was really slow, I rarely backed up and lost quite a bit of software. Anyway, this is getting a little of topic, so if your freind would like some more info you can email me directly. GVB

2/8/1998 9:48 PM

GVB

Re: STEP DOWN TRANSFORMERS

I used to live in Pakistan about 15 years ago, so I may be able to help you out. There are three types of power transformers he may wish to purchase. The first are tiny "wall wart" types. These are inexpensive, low wattage types, for use with small appliances (radio's, etc...). Radio Shack used to sell these, but you'll have to check to make sure.

The second type is a regular bulky, heavy type that you see in tube amps etc... These are expensive, and can be used for higher power appliances such as TV's, high-powered amps etc... If he does buy these, make sure they are protected by some type of fuse! I have see two of them blow ($300+ US), from a broken appliance being connected to them. If you consider that in the US an average circit breaker will take about 1800W of power before it blows, the transformer will only be able to handle a fraction of this, and may be damaged if the load is drawing large amounts of current. As for TV's, as far as I know, India uses the PAL system instead of the NTSC type used here. This means that his TV may only be useful to play video tapes from his NTSC VCR. I would suggest sellings these items and purchasing multi-format versions overseas. You can rent tapes (English) over there, and there are English stations availiable in many places. If possible I would suggest a stop over in Singapor as it is duty free and electonics are dirt cheap, or at least they were when I visited.

The third type, I'm not too familiar with. These are extreamly costly power supplies that convert the 240V 50Hz to 120V 60Hz. I sure could have used one over there. At the time I had a TI 99/4A computer, and more often then not, it would crash after several hours of programming. Since the tape(cassette) it used for perminant storage was really slow, I rarely backed up and lost quite a bit of software.

Anyway, this is getting a little of topic, so if your freind would like some more info you can email me directly.

GVB