Electrical Wave Analyzers for Power and Telephone Systems

This paper describes two types of electrical analyzers which have been developed for the direct measurement of harmonic components of voltage and current on power and telephone systems. These devices are assembled mechanically in a form suitable for use either in the laboratory or in the field. Both instruments, which differ chiefly with respect to sensitivity and input circuit arrangement, employ multistage vacuum tube amplifiers and two duplicate interstage selective circuits. The power circuit analyzer is designed to measure harmonic voltages in the frequency range from 75 to 3000 cycles and over a voltage range from 0.5 millivolt to 50 volts. The telephone circuit analyzer operates over the same frequency range and measures harmonic currents as low as 0.05 microampere and voltages as small as 0.005 millivolt. Both analyzers are adapted to measure small harmonic voltages and currents in the presence of the fundamental component and other harmonics relatively large in magnitude. A number of devices are described which have been adopted for eliminating various sources of error. The paper presents in detail the characteristics of both instruments with respect to selectivity, sensitivity, linearity, balance of input with respect to ground, generation of harmonics, and susceptiveness to stray fields.