This is from a ROK resident and contributor to Usenet newsgroup rec.antiques.radio+phono.

She posted these pictures and text about wiring methods in that country and gave me permission to copy the post here. Sorry for the sideways picture of the 5KW portable transformer and the utility pole.

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Brenda Ann said:

Someone asked me to post something like these.. so here they are



shows our 220 volt AC 60 Hz drop. Yes, those are approximately 9AWG wires that are spliced into the drop, and feed 6 apartments of this building, plus negligible hallway and porch lighting. Can you say fire hazard?? I knew you
could!!!



shows the single high tension wire feeding the system running about a meter below the top of the pole. The wire running on top is the other leg, which is below the top of the pole. The wire running on top is the other leg, which is also loosely connected to ground (lightning protection) via the concrete and steel reinforced pole (all of them are like that). Note that the "hot" wire runs down to the pole pig, whereas the "ground" wire runs down the pole, and is tapped off to the pole pig. NOTE!!: There is NO GROUND and NO Neutral on the drop itself!! These do not exist inside the buildings here!!

To drop 220 down to 110, to run the various US market appliances available here, they use autotransformers of various sizes, up to 5KVA (a very loose interpretation thereof... the 5KVA autotransformers are no larger than a good 20 amp 12 volt power supply is in the states... one is pictured below:



Also, only one line is switched for any reason, which means that always one line of the mains is hot to earth ground (either by leakage or by direct connection, depending upon how the pole pig is wired)...

[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 10-27-2003).]

Sven,

the account with the pictures got locked since it doesn't allow linking from the outside!

I suggest you download them and put them on an account that allows linking.

BTW, geocities won't let you access a jpg on their servers directly. But there is a work around: highlight the url in the line where you would type in a url to browse it (Netscape). Then hit "return". This tricks geocities into letting you see the picture.

C-H: Yeah, I noticed that the pics weren't coming up and so I put the URLS right next to it so you could go directly to them.

Let me figure something out....but that was the best I could do at the time.

OK, fixed. We grabbed the pics, put them on my website and linked to that. And rotated.

I HATE Geocities!!

Certainly some, er, interesting wiring.

The HV neutral run at the top of the pole with the hot line below it looks weird.

pauluk


Maybe they want lightning to head for the neutral (ground?) instead of the hot distribution wire.

The wire at the top of the pole is called an Umbrella wire.
It's used to keep lightning strikes away from the HV wire, which if struck, would cause all manner of problems.
But, I notice the small distance between the HV dropper and the Grounding wire that heads down the pole, it's a wonder that there is not an arcing-over problem there!.

Good point about lightning.

Do we know what voltage is on the incoming HV line here?

Paul, my best guess would be that this is either a 10 or 15kV line.
The reason I say this is because the Xformer is an ABB Type 35-10, used ages ago and are quite rare now!.
BTW, the insulators on the line/crossarm contact point and the Primary fuse are a bit too small for my liking.
They also look like they are made of metal?!.
Glad we don't have cross-arms like that over here, us Line Mechanics stand up on them.

*laughs*

We on ECN are one odd bunch. Where else would people say things like "That's an ABB Type 35-10" or "Ah, a NEMA 6-20"...

I can't see a neutral wire at all? The upper wire seems to be directly connected to the pole?