3.10.2.6 Experimental Verification of Cabling and Grounding Schemes to Achieve Minimum Noise Pickup
Ott (1976) described the effectiveness of 12 different cabling schemes in minimizing
the pick-up of a 50 kHz magnetic field (Figure 3.36). The unwanted coherent interference
was measured across a 1M resistor. The shielded cables were wound helically (3 turns,
17.8 cm diameter) inside the helical field, generating coil (10 turns of 20 ga. wire,
23 cm diameter, carrying 0.6A at 50 kHz). Ten volts peak-to-peak was impressed across
the field generating coil. From his tests, Ott reported that 0 dB was 0.8V. We have
arranged the cables in Figure 3.36 in the order of increasing magnetic (and electric)
shielding effectiveness. Note that the simple coaxial cable with ungrounded shield
performed the poorest. The better performing cables had circuits in which the 100
Thevenin source resistance was not tied to ground. Although Ott’s evaluation was focused on evaluating the shielding from a magnetic field, his system also produced
an electric field. Caution should be used in over-generalizing his results. Many subtle
factors contribute to the pick-up of coherent interference, including circuit geometry, the
frequency and the spatial distributions of E and B fields.
FIGURE 3.36
Relative effectiveness of 12 different cabling circuits subject to a 50 kHz magnetic field determined experimentally by Ott (1976).