MARC - Mountain Amateur Radio ClubHiawassee, GeorgiaKI4ENN Repeater146.865 Mhz, +offset, pl 151.4 hz
Have you heard of Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter Breakers (AFCI) that are now starting to appear in new construction? In fact, the National Electric Code (NEC) is mandating the use of these new breakers in new construction. These new breakers are able to detect an arc in a circuit and disconnect a circuit (flip the breaker off) before a fire can start. The advanced electronics inside an AFCI breaker detect sudden bursts of electric current in milliseconds which is long before a standard circuit breaker or fuse would trip.Problems have been reported where these AFCI type breakers that are falsely tripping by RF from low power HAM radio transmissions at distances up to 400 feet. There are problems with some of these breakers and the manufacturers are aware of these issues. Please see the following URLs for more information.http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-helps-manufacturer-to-resolve-arc-fault-circuit-interrupter-rfi-problemshttp://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index.php/board,25.0.htmlhttp://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index.php/topic,96949.0.html