GAI-Tronics Associated User Manual

Pub. 42004-324A

GAI-TRONICS® CORPORATION

A HUBBELL COMPANY

Extended Range

Page/Party

Confidentiality Notice

This manual is pr ovided s olely as a n op erat ional, installation, and maintenance guide and contains sens itive
bus ines s and t echnic al infor ma tion tha t is confident i al and p roprietary to G AI-Tronics. GAI-Tronics
retains a ll intellectual pr operty and other rights in or to t he inf ormation c ontained herein, and s uch
informa tion may only be used in connection wit h the operation of you r GAI- Tronic s pr oduct or system.
This ma nual may not be disclosed in any form, in whole or in p art, dir ec tly or indirectly, to any t hird pa rty.

Introduction

The GAI- Tr onic s Pa ge/Pa rty® syst em is a modular industrial communication system incorporat ing f rom
two to p ossibly hundreds of sta tions. Available in severa l f orms, each st ation incl udes a handset, two
amplifiers (one for the handset and the other to drive one or more paging s peakers), ass oc iated cont rols, and
a paging speaker (u sually mounted sepa rately). All stat ions are wired in para llel and addit i onal stations
may be a dded at a ny time.

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Systems

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A GAI-Tronic s Page/Party
locat i ons should b e carefully selected, taking convenience, access ibility, and personal s afety int o account.
The quantit y and location of paging speakers must be carefully consider ed, partic ularly in ar eas of high
ambient noise or r everberation.

The sp eaker a mplif ier built into each sta tion will drive one horn- loaded paging s peaker. If additiona l
paging speakers are needed, separa te spea ker amplifiers can be added t o the syst em. I n quiet areas such a s
offices, several pa ging speakers can be connected t o a single stat ion. Refer to Publication 42004-135
Speaker Ins talla tion, or consu l t with a G AI - Tronic s sa les repr es ent ative for additional s ystem planning
information.

All sta tions a re wired in parallel. Good planning will minimize cable r equ irements for each inst allat i on.
GAI-Tronics can supply multi-conductor c able designed specifically f or this applic ation. The number, si z e
and color-coding of conductors a re listed in the accompanying system connection diagrams. GAI-Tr onic s
standard cable has 600 volt insulation and is UL-rated for power cable tray use. Additionally, for ease of
installat ion GAI-T ronics’ c able is color-coded t o ma tch the termination p oints in our enclosures.

The max imum system cab l e length is 10 miles (16 km) end-to-end with the system’s Line Ba lance
Assembly located at the electrical center, i.e., c abling from the Line Balance may ext end u p to 5 miles t o
the las t station in any direct ion.

syst em la yout should be pla nned in advance of insta llation. Handset stat ion

GAI-Tronics Corporation P.O. Box 1060, Reading, PA 19607-1060 USA

610-777-1374  800-492-1212  Fax : [phone]

ISIT WWW.GAI-TRONICS.COM FOR PRODUCT LITERATURE AND MANUALS

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Extended Range Page/Party

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Systems Page: 2 of 10

The cable described a bove includes c ondu ctor s to supply ac operating power to each station. All stations
operate fr om a c ommon power sour c e, enhancing reliability, pa rticularly if no other ac load is pla c ed on t he
circuit, or br anch l i n e feeding the system. T h i s configuration also al l o ws easy t ra n sfer to a back-up power
source in the event of p ower failure. H owever, if prefer red, ea c h sta tion may be individu ally powered f rom
a nearby nominal 120 volt, 50 or 60 Hz single-phase outlet.

Installation Procedure

STEP 1 — Electrical Noise Considerations

When planning your s ystem, cons ider the following suggestions to avoid electrica l noise caused by slip
rings and silicon c ontrol rectifier ( SCR ) power supplies.

Slip Rings - Use a Radio Frequency (R F) al terna tive and a void using slip rings as a udio conductors . Slip
rings are a sour c e of electrical noise and are not reliab le.

SCR Power Supplies - The Page/Party

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syst em will be installed in ar eas where SCR power s upplies are
used to power motors or other hea vy equ ipment, cons ider using one or all of the following four
recommendations to r edu c e elect rica l noise.

1. Separation—Locate the Page/ system cables as far as possible from the SCR power supply input or

outpu t cables. Electri cal coupling between cables i s r ed uced by the square of the dis ta n ce between the
cables.

2. Shielding—Use shield ed (Armored) sys tem cables if the cable must be run i n the s ame bundle or cabl e

tray with the SCR power supply cables. Shielded cables reduce capacitive coupling between SCR
power supply cables and Page/Party

3. Isolation—Two methods of power s ource is olation can be used to avoid elect rica l noise:

A. Use a low ca pacitance ( prima ry to s econdary) isolation trans f ormer bet ween t he Page/Party

and the ac supply to the SCRs. This will electrically isolat e t he P age/Part y

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audio c ables.

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system’s ac power from

system

the noise generated by t he SCR on the ac p ower feed. Als o u se an isolation t ransformer to isola te the

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Page/Party

ac p ower fr om an ungrounded ac p ower sou rce. N ote: The neutral side of t he transformer

outp ut must be grounded in all instances.

The siz e of the isolation tr ansformer shou ld be bas ed on t he nu mber of amplifiers u sed in the system.
If 10 or less amplifiers are used in the system, a 500 VA transformer is sufficient. If 11 to 20
amplifiers are used in the system, select a 1000 VA transformer. For systems with more than 20
amplifier s, t he t rans f ormer shou ld be sized to a c c ommodate a load of 50 VA per amplifier.

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B. A battery-powered 24 V dc Page/Party

system can be used as an alternative to the standard 120 V ac
syst em. I n this instance, the ba tter y/batter y c harger pr ovides isolat ion f rom the SCR noise on ac power
syst ems. Cable shielding and separation as mentioned a bove still apply.

Note: Avoid battery cha rgers that utilize SCRs in their design.

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STEP 2 - Mounting of Station and Speaker Amplifier Enclosure

Each Page/Party® system station includes a plug-in amplifier that mates with a fabricated steel, cast
aluminum, or molded reinforced non-metallic encl osure. Eac h enclosur e p rovides terminal bloc ks for
connecting int er-st ation cabling. Enclosures a re pac ked s ep arately from the plug-in amplifiers at the
factory, allowing t he amplifiers to remain p rotect ed while t he enclos ures are installed a nd wired —
particularly import ant during sys tem insta llation in areas under c onstr uction.

The 16-gau ge steel enclosu res do not provide a ny openings for c onduits or ca bles because the locat ion of
these will vary with eac h ins tallation. D rill or punch the necessary conduit openings befor e mount i ng the
enclosure. Locate the open i n g s on either the t o p or bottom of the enclosure, a n d toward the rear of the b ox.
Avoid the top cent er because of pos sible inter f erence with the plug- in amplifier receptacle. A dr ill template
is sup plied with each enclosu re.

Ca st al uminum enclosur es are drilled and tapped on the top a nd bottom for specially-designed hub pla tes.
Unless special arrangements are made, these enclosures inclu de p lates for si ngle 1 ¼-inch conduit. P lates
for s i ngle ½-inch or 1½-inc h, or dual 1¼ inc h are availa ble.

Molded (non-metallic ) enclosures are sup plied without any conduit openings. Sealed threaded hub s, s uch
as Myers “Scru-t ite,” a re recommended. A drill template is supplied with ea ch enclo sure.

CAUTION

Use caution when drilling holes to avoid damaging inter nal electrical c omponents and wiring.

The suggested mounting height for all station enclosures is 54 inches (137 cm). Subsets used with remote
amplifiers are supplied with 8-foot (244 cm) cables. Enclosures for remote subset amplifiers must be
mounted within reach of the 8-foot cab l e. Desktop or des k- edge stations enclosures are often mounted in
the kn ee-well of the des k .

STEP 3 - Mounting of Line Balance Assembly

Eac h G AI - Tr onic s Pa ge/Pa rty® system requires one Model 305-002 Line Balance Assembly. Its function
is to p roper ly load the page and party line circu i ts. W hen u sing GAI-Tronics standard cable, select a
locat ion that is:

• near t h e el ectrical cen ter o f the system

• adja c ent to an indoor station in a relat ively qu iet ar ea

• no more than 5 miles from the most dista nt station

The line ba lance assembly has one electrical adju stment that mus t be made while using a station (see
below). The following is t he p referred method for mount i ng the line bala nce ass embly:

1. Suspend the a ssembly fr om t he lower side of the indoor wall s tation using a 1-inch c onduit nipple (not

supplied).

2. Connect one t wisted pair wire for t he p age cir c uit a nd another f or each of the pa rty lines between the

termina l blocks of the line balance as sembly and the assoc iated indoor wall st ation.

3. Make the wiring connect ions between the M odel 305-002 Line Balance Assembly and the Model 702

and 703 Indoor Wall Station Enclos ures in accordance wit h the wiring dia grams at t he end of this
publication.

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