Clock Losing Time....

You can't connect a synchronous generator to a bus unless the frequency and phase are very closely matched. There will be a big bang, a circuit breaker tripping, if they aren't closely matched. (Well, in our Electric Machinery classes, we didn't have breakers, so we got smoke.)

Once a generator is on the bus, it inherently synchronizes to the bus frequency and phase. "Bus" here is the entire grid.

There's no problem connecting thousands of synchronous generators in parallel. Getting all of them to agree to generate 60.000 Hz requires large-scale cooperation. It's as if the rotational momentum of all of the generators were all medium-tightly coupled, and become one gigantic mushy rotating mass, but scattered across entire states.

You can connect two stepper motors and get the same effects.

There are interesting system stability issues, which are only partially understood, hence the occasional large-scale blackout.

Before you close the breaker to put a generator online, the steam or hydro valve controls the speed. After it's connected to the grid, it runs at synchronous speed and the valve controls the power that it donates to the grid. The field excitation controls the power factor.

PM DC generators are similar, really. Disconnected, speed makes voltage. Once it's on a big bus, the voltage is fixed and input torque makes amps.

It's not a "breeze" at all. In fact, it's exactly 19,021 times harder than getting the second to sync with the first. ;-)

Yes, they will either be motors or generators, depending on the phase. Either way, they tend to lock themselves in.

You have to get them close. Closer the better.

This gadget displays the relative phase of a disconnected generator vs the bus/grid.

Yes, I was being just a little sarcastic with my response. :-)

Many things are described as easy when someone else is doing it. A jealous person once described my little shrimp retail business, with the quip, "that corner makes a lot of money". Without any mention that my wife and I work 100 to 120 hours a week 52 weeks a year for 13 years straight. But it's the corner. Ya, it's a breeze. Mikek

Sure but this one isn't hard. John described it pretty well. It's a common lab exercise in EE201 "motors and machines" (A.K.A. Welding Shop). As he also pointed out, keeping 19,023 generators unconditionally stable is another problem altogether.

"You didn't do that." ;-)

They still use the spinning vane regulators no?

Ashton Frost engine governors used to govern generator shaft speed.

I am sure there are newer and better maintained units, but this is essentially the animal.

Ya, that got under my skin too! Mikek

Where do you get the shrimp?

Most of the ones here are imported, frozen, and often tasteless, especially the big ones. I grew up in New Orleans, eating the Gulf shrimp and oysters, and I miss them. We don't even see crawfish here.

We're working on our Shrimp&Grits recipe. We can rarely find shrimp with heads; heads and shells make the best shrimp broth, which is best for S&G.

When I was a kid, we'd eat shrimp when we couldn't afford hamburger. People would sell them for 20 cents a pound, out the backs of trucks. That was before people started loading them onto 747 freighters to New York and Japan.

That working 100 hours a week is highly over rated. I find working two weeks a year is much, much preferable.

I live in Panama City FL. Our floating store is at a marina on St. Andrews Bay. About 1/2 the year we get bay shrimp, the other half we get them out of the gulf.

Yes, it really is a treat to live on the coast with all the fresh seafood available.

That's all we sell is head on shrimp.

Times change, now a 25 count shrimp goes for $7.00 to 7.50 LB, 17 count about $9.00 and when we get the 6 or 7 count shrimp it's $15.00 a LB. The unloading dock is near my boat, so I get to see the boats come in with 6000 LBS of grouper, snapper, triggerfish, and others. We also have two tuna boats the dock at the marina, so we get to see tuna unloaded. My wife often sweet talks us our dinner. Mikek

I agree with that, btw, the 100 hours to 120 hours is for two of us. I'm looking forward to retiring in a few years. The work is fairy easy, I spend much of the day on my computer, watching TV or listening to radio. So there's no complaint there, it's just that even on my days off I'm still waiting for a call, (shrimp boat just came in) or I need this at the boat by 1:00. Ofter on my day off I work 1 to 5 hours. We are open 7 days a week, I once suggested to my wife that we close one day a week, she said, "OK pick a day, I'll work that day". I need to give much credit to my wife, she is a bundle of energy, and tenacious, she never quits. Mikek

I saw you quoting prices in another post. I have a special shrimp recipe I fix and like the 16-20 count shrimp. A nice compromise for ease of handling and taste. But they seem to have gone up in the last 6 months to a year. Of course I'm buying retail in the stores and the source varies a lot, but I used to be able to get this size for $7 to $9 a lb on sale while now it seems like I can't find them for less than $11, even then they are farm raised from Vietnam. Have your prices gone up as well?

I won't go so far as to say the farm raised shrimp are tasteless, but I do believe the wild caught shrimp have more flavor. I try to buy the wild caught if I can, but often there is no choice.

I may serve Vietnamese farm raised shrimp if I can't find anything wild caught, but not many turn them down, especially the way I fix them.

BTW, 50 to 60 hours a week each is not such a big deal when working for yourself. When I was working full time it was rather feast or famine. When the work was "in", I worked 80 hours a week if needed. Until recently I did my own board test. When I had a shipment to make I worked 10 hours a day to get it all done. But then that's just the two weeks a year, lol.

Yes, prices have gone up. Four or five years ago farm raised shrimp became a larger part of production than wild caught shrimp. A couple years ago a disease they are calling Early Mortality syndrome (EMS) started killing the shrimp in the ponds. It got so bad that farm production dropped significantly. This caused the prices to rise of all shrimp, wild and farm raised. They seem to have figured out how to what it takes to keep a farm EMS free, but it is on a farm by farm basis. There are many shrimp farming methods, some are better at going EMS free. however it takes time to change over to a better method. For a while the wholesalers were not buying farmed shrimp to replenish stock, because it seemed there was going to be a large production this year. I didn't pan out as thought. I think prices have dropped a little, but a newsletter I get warned, it will be years before the industry gets over this. It is very important to get disease free brood stock for the farms. I had a difficult time this year knowing if we raised our prices enough to keep up with our cost. I've done enough of my tax work that it looks like we did about right. It might sound easy, but sometimes when we buy shrimp it sorts into 4 different sizes, so you don't know exactly what to do. Customers absolutely notice price increases and tell you every purchase.

That's the general consensus. In our area we get 4 different type of shrimp, pink, brown, white and rock shrimp. The mos common is the pink shrimp, late in the summer season the brown shrimp come in, white shrimp have their season also. Rock shrimp are a different type of shrimp and have a lobster type flavor. Many people shy away from rock shrimp because of the hard shell that is a little more difficult to peal. Here's a picture; second one down.

Here's the way I like them cooked, you pinch the head off and use scissors cut up the bottom side to butterfly then broil, if I'm on the boat, I put a few in the microwave and cook a very short time maybe 15 to 30 seconds, depends on how many shrimp and the plate used. This is what that looks like and the description that goes with the picture.

DIRECTIONS:

Turn your oven onto Broil and put your oven rack as high as it will go. Spread your split and cleaned rock shrimp out shell side down on a cookie sheet. Spoon melted butter over them and add seasoning (if preferred). Rock shrimp go well with a variety of seasonings, such as Old Bay and Caribbean Jerk. Slide your pan of rock shrimp into the oven. As the rock shrimp cook, their flesh will turn from opaque to white and their tails will roll up and scorch on the ends. The shrimp are done when the flesh just starts to pull away from the shell. It takes about 1

My wife works more than I do, I'm sure she does some 80 hour weeks especially in summer, I like my play time. Mikek

They sound great! I would love to try rock shrimp, but I can't find any place to buy them. Any suggestions?

If I am in the DC area I could try Maine Ave where they sell seafood off boats. I seriously doubt any of them caught anything they sell, but they have a reputation for having great product.

Also in the DC area there are a lot of Asian supermarkets. I don't recall ever seeing rock shrimp in any of them though.

As to the cooking, it is hard to go wrong with melted butter with shrimp. But I really like my hots and while searching for some place to buy them I found any number of recipes with chilli. I may have to try some of them on the tiger shrimp.

BTW, what types of shrimp are there? I see all sorts of names in the stores. Mostly I figured they were made up names.

I can't be much help, we get them, but they are seasonal.

I'm not sure if they get them off the East coast, but it's worth checking.

Not necessarily an Asian thing, other than the Vietnamese are often shrimpers.

As I posted earlier, we have 4 types in our area, Pink, Brown, White and Rock. There are many others around the world. Back in the 70s or 80s there was a local fellow that started farming shrimp here in Panama City in North Bay. They fenced in a section of the bay and searched the world for a shrimp that would grow in captivity. They worked with Purina and developed a shrimp chow. In the end they folded, but they did develop the method. It was found within 15* of the equator you can get 3 crops per year, here they could only get one. The fellow wrote a book, 'Memoirs of a Shrimp Farmer'

Is there much of a taste difference in these types (other than the rock which I read is a it like lobster)? I can't say I've noticed much difference in shrimp other than some have more flavor than others.

A friend calls shrimp natant decapods. I hear there are other species of sea critters that aren't decapods which are not bad to eat. But I don't believe they are sold commercially.

Not much difference, but the locals like to buy the (hoppers) pink bay shrimp, they say they are sweeter than the gulf shrimp, even though they are the same type of shrimp. When the water gets cooler the shrimp move out of the bay into the gulf. Here's a link,

People do eat the mantis shrimp but it is always Asians that ask for them, shrimpers don't keep them, but I have seen a fisherman with a homemade jig catching them off the marina.

Mikek