ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades "Esoteric" countries and their wiring practices?

Ragnar,

Didn't say anything was wrong.

In fact that's why I bought this cheap piece of s&^$ because it didn't have a stupid external transformer box like other similar ones I had seen for sale.

These speakers are good enough for a work computer that only uses them to amplify the email-signal tone loud enough so I can hear it across the store-room I work in (and occasional Real-Audio & Windows Media streaming and MP3-disk playback all of which are crappy sounding to begin with) .

Only cost US$10.00 plus taxes.

The transformer is inside one of the little speaker cabinets and is connected to a 5 foot piece of #18 zip cord. I recently had to replace the cord-cap because the original molded-on plug became intermittent.

As for PAL vs. NTSC:

I call it Perfection At Last.

I'd love to see a PAL TV in action...picking up an over-the-air TV station to see how good the quality is.

I've heard it's very good...and the old French 812 SECAM B&W system was even better. Too bad they had to drop down to 625 when color was adopted (bandwith issues).

[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 01-10-2003).]

You're right, speakers with internal power supplies are really nice, I have quite good 20W types that directly plug into the IEC outlet at the back of your computer.
PAL TV is visibly better compared to NTSC, I had to watch US TV for 10 days when in NYC, and it always looks slightly blurred (Concerning the sound I don't know whether it was a bad movie or typical, anyway it sounded like transmitted over the phone, even on a dolby surround system). Also there seem to be some channels you definitely don't need (at least more than here), I've never seen more bad movies than those my host always kept running. The more channels you have the more useless ones you get. (Austria has 2, ORF 1 on VHF and ORF 2 on UHF, if we want more we can get cable/satellite and tune in german stations, some of which are hardly better than the US ones I mentioned above).

Ragnar: I'm sorry to say but I think your theory is wrong: If you could plug in 4.8 mm pins into the US socket, a grounded socket would accept Schuko plugs but without ground. Furthermore: It's harder to get the larger pins in than the smaller as you start interfering on the Nema socket. I have a adapter that accepts both the Schukos and Nema plugs (made by Kopp). It takes some effort to insert a Schuko plug.

C-H,

Re. North Korea TV:
I visited Steve Kropla's page and according to his list, North Korea uses both SECAM and PAL.

I believe that the reason PAL is listed is because "SECAM" VCRs are actually recording in PAL and they convert the output signal to SECAM. You're the engineering student, maybe you can explain it better.

The actual TV stations may broadcast in SECAM. See http://www.kropla.com/tv.htm


Re. Adapters:
Keep sticking a Schuko plug into an adapter designed for the thinner Europlug pins and you'll eventually ruin the adapter's female contacts - spread them out enough that they loose their spring action and don't grip Europlugs anymore. They're very thin metal and bend easily.

Maybe that's why the Europlugs keep slipping out of Ragnar's adapter.

I ruined a couple of cheap "German to American" adapters by doing that that (fortunately they only cost US$1 and I was able to unscrew them and bend back the contacts so now they grip Europlugs properly).

Maybe you have better adapters out there...hehehe

[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 01-10-2003).]

PAL and SECAM DVD:s are recorded in the same format, but I don't know if the same applies to video tapes. Kropla's list should only reflect actual broadcasts, not what people have in their videos. (Many PAL videos can play back NTSC tapes.)

Yes, PAL and SECAM are similar. The black and white part is the same, it's just the colour coding that differs. (NTSC is different in both aspects) They came the same year, but SECAM is inferior and was (therefore?) adopted by the communist block. In fact, the PAL colour coding is supposed to simply be an improved version of NTSC. They fixed the Newer-Twice-Same-Colour problem, but this made it more complex than NTSC. (Hence: Pay a lot)

PAL quality isn't that great. Not as much because of the format as of distortion during transmission and reception. Hooking it up to a DVD should do magic.

What I was talking about was a Thailand 2 outlet extension cord. The outlets have holes like the mentioned adaptors, but as a matter of fact Euro plugs won't make proper contacts and eventually fall out of these oriental combo type. So my guess was that the type used in thailand (and maybe in Korea as well) is built for 4.8 mm pins. The lists I saw only give very vague opinions on this, they don't make any difference between the 2.5 A Europlug and the 16A rated ungrounded contour plug (shape of a Schuko plug but without ground contacts) with 4.8 mm pins).
SECAM was adopted by the eastern countries simply to keep people from watching western TV. However, soon PAL/SECAM TVs came out.

But they hardly sold those sets in Eastern Europe, did they? (BTW, Thailand and South Korea are as far apart as Austria and Romania economically, not to mention geographically)

[This message has been edited by C-H (edited 01-10-2003).]

One thing that’s made it a little easier is the “IEC-320” connector/plug.

I never connected Korea and Thailand in that way, but those NEMA/round pin combos were even lurking around here at some time, so I assumed they migh be used in Korea as well. However, the Kropla list shows Schuko plugs as well, so it's probably just an idea of them using 4.8 mm pins. Doesn't make much of a difference, although they can't get their plugs into female Euro cord caps. There are weird things around, I even have an old ungrounded plug with 4.8mm pins, no idea where it comes from. Seems my guess was wrong. Anyway, it was just a guess.
I think PAL/SECAM sets were sold in the GDR. Even some Panasonic video recorders for PAL/SECAM east found their way there. I have one of those (although sold in Vienna) with a sticker on top proudly presenting: SECAM (DDR) reception!

I have now made a page for each of the plugs used around the world. (Types A-M) Most of them still contain nothing but a drawing and a very brief description. I would like some input please: How should the layout be improved?

Here is the page for the simple two pin plug:
http://www.i.kth.se/i98_gnk/testfolder/plugs/C.htm

Sven:
You better hurry up if you want to see PAL over the air. Germany begins shutdown of PAL broadcasts this years and the rest of Europe is set to follow in the next ten years.

Bjarney:
Yes, but why don't they put a male IEC 320 connector at the end of the cord instead of a female in the appliance? Then they could simply ship a bunch of adapters. (Nema to IEC 320, Schuko to IEC 320 and so on.)