Modified Square Wave, NO GOOD! Stick to Sine Wave!

TucsonAZ

MSW Has always kinda freaked me out, I will admit to becoming a little new aged as I've gotten older, more aware of the foods I eat, wearing annoying face masks and goggles as well as ear protection when grinding metal and sawing things. As a rule, sometimes I just feel something as not good (or good) and MSW is one of those things. This video kind of spoke to me in terms of visually looking the way I feel about it, like the monster in a scary movie.

[video=youtube_share;PebWCLvGjzs]http://youtu.be/PebWCLvGjzs[/video]

Anyway, if I were to go back 10 years and read this, I would think I was one cookie short of a dozen but still felt I would share and see what others had to say on the matter. Mods, feel free to move if there's a better home for this topic.

waynefromnscanada

Re: Modified Square Wave, NO GOOD! Stick to Sine Wave!

Well we all know MSW is not a clean sine wave, and that some inverters, both MSW AND Pure Sine are better quality than others. We also know that some items work very well on MSW, while others do not. That said, there is a place for MSW inverters. Generally their idle consumption is much lower than Pure Sine, and in certain cases that can be a big advantage.
Beyond that, I take great exception to the commentator making unfounded and unproven conspiracy-type statements, as if they were proven fact, that using MSW inverters will lead to health problems. Perhaps he should take his scope and monitor the hundreds of thousands of radiated RF watts projected from radio and TV transmitters and aimed into cities and towns all over the world before he starts worrying about the very tiny bit produced by an inverter or cell phone. And microwave "radiation"? Perhaps think about that the next time you meet a police car with it's radar aimed at your face. But hey, all that is old stuff, so there's no need to worry, we only get our shorts in knots over anything new. Beyond that, a pure sine inverter, depending on its design is just as capable of transmitting RF noise. And by the way, my MX-60 charge controller was infamous for transmitting RF, but I didn't wear a tin hat when I worked around it because the local TV tower washed it all away with it's 100,000 watts of "radiation".

Cariboocoot

Re: Modified Square Wave, NO GOOD! Stick to Sine Wave!

Cannot view the video myself due to connection limitations, but based on Wayne's comments:

1). MSW inverters do not produce microwaves.
2). They will not hurt you.
3). Unless you count wasting your money on one that burns up your stuff.

Not all MSW inverters have the same waveform output either: they range from square wave to something closely approximating sine wave.

Honestly, all this rubbish about how dangerous microwaves or EM fields in general are is nonsense. I just had a 30 minute MRI session which involves an EM field so strong it will pull the iron out of your tattoos and I'm not dead or even lightly cooked. Not the first time I've been in one either.

As Wayne said; the fields are all around us daily. Personally I've worked around many types and intensities for 40 years. My Dad was a radar technician and used to warm his hands under the magnatron (he's not dead yet either). If they were hazardous we'd be dropping like flies. There is no scientific link between any type of EM exposure and any illness. This includes hyper-magnetism (which you will not experience). Just a lot of misinformation propagated by the uninformed.

You're in more danger from breathing the air.

niel

Re: Modified Square Wave, NO GOOD! Stick to Sine Wave!

actually, it isn't total rubbish as the fcc does have exposure parameters for radio waves. it is a question of radiated power levels and exposure times. the output of a msw inverter will not do anything to you even with infinite exposure times as it would be far too weak.

i do agree though that it would be in a category of alarmist to say to stay away from msw inverters because of the harmonic radiation exposure. your router or pc will have more stray rf than many msw inverters will, but they aren't harmful either except to radio reception at times.

niel

Re: Modified Square Wave, NO GOOD! Stick to Sine Wave!

wayne,
you may have an exposure problem if the antenna of that station is close enough to you. i'd hope that your governmental agency has made them adhere to safety to those around before allowing operations. you may even have a free low voltage power source with a high powered station nearby by using an antenna cut to length for the frequency and fed into a full wave diode bridge. voltages should be below 1 volt though.

techntrek

Re: Modified Square Wave, NO GOOD! Stick to Sine Wave!

Similarly if you live under a high-voltage power line. You can light your house for free, for starters. However, I would never want to live that close between the view and RF exposure.

TucsonAZ

Re: Modified Square Wave, NO GOOD! Stick to Sine Wave!

I have a few friends that are brain surgeons and they won't hold a cell phone to their heads to save their lives. I also have fellow friends in the MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity) community that will know if your cell phone is on the moment you walk up to them and request that you please turn it off. Now, I'm not saying the normal person can't handle the normal levels of EMF but I'm saying you can become hypersensitive to it with exposure and having friends that see first hand the impacts of it and avoiding it I see no reason not to follow in their tracks.

Knowing people that seem immune to things like this, that could eat corn flakes in diesel fuel for breakfast I know they would laugh at me. I'm just saying, for the small additional cost I see no reason to risk any additional exposure than I must.

I do avoid putting my laptop in my actual lap and I don't hold a cell phone to my head, I also don't own a microwave. Also, when my friends base jump off of high towers I don't go although most of them have switched over to the ceramic fillings as the mercury ones were getting so hot they were having to jump earlier than they wanted due to the discomfort.

PNjunction

Re: Modified Square Wave, NO GOOD! Stick to Sine Wave!

I'm just bummed you used Asimov's quotation about ignorance to act as a justification for random guesswork, and a defensive measure to make sure that nothing we say here will be of any importance.

waynefromnscanada

Re: Modified Square Wave, NO GOOD! Stick to Sine Wave!

The thread is descending further into Tin Hat territory. Sad.

Cariboocoot

Re: Modified Square Wave, NO GOOD! Stick to Sine Wave!

waynefromnscanada wrote: »

The thread is descending into Tin Hat territory. Sad.

Agreed.
Hurrah for the Internet: the misinformation superhighway.