Generator fried my Coax amplifier

most of those coax amps are powered by an external step down transformer. That is probably all that blew, but it will keep happening. Those things are cheap and will short out at the drop of a hat.
ETA: Saying all of that, there is no way I am running any sensitive equipment off of a portable generator. Those things produce terrible power for anything electronic

This. Be aware the same issue applies to modern TVs as associated equipment.

Short of getting a new generator I’d put it on a UPS. Personally, when my power grid was shitty (rural, only house at end of long line) I put everything that would cost more than 1k to replace on a UPS even on a normal day.

thanks all. sadly i figured that might be the answer. took a lot of adjusting on the generator just to get the voltage and freq right. Frequency is running high to (64ish) just to keep the voltage up to 120/240. had major problems when the frequency was running optimal 61-62.

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An idea I'm toying with involves plugging my 50-amp Pyramid 12-15VDC power supply into my generator, running a pure-sine dc-ac automotive inverter, then pluging a circuit tester and oscilloscope I have to see how it looks. Pure-sine inverters aren't cheap though.

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let me know how that goes.

I guess i could get a smaller inverter to run those specific circuits.

***would taking the amplifier out and running a straight splitter cause damage to my modem probably?

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Frequency is running high to (64ish) just to keep the voltage up to 120/240. had major problems when the frequency was running optimal 61-62.

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That's odd, I have a relatively cheap Champion 4500W conventional generator and I tuned it under an 1800W load, dead nuts on 60Hz at 3600 rpm. Might be a weak governor spring or a stiff throttle plate.

On those portable units, frequency and voltage is going to be directly related to engine speed. Unloaded, you are going to want the voltage around 122, which will increase the frequency to around 63 or a little lower. That way when you put a load on it, it will settle down closer to 120/60.

I forgot what brand you said, but most of the big box store units have crappy voltage regulation and the regulators can not react fast enough to fridge or AC kicking on or off. And, as was mentioned before, it is about the dirtiest power you can get. I bet if it was hooked up to an oscilloscope the waveform would look like shite with loads of harmonics.

The solution is an inverter generator if you want to run anything that needs clean or stable power.

Just saw your comment above. On a 2 pole generator, at 3600 RPM you should have 120V @ 60 Hz. With decent regulation, it should pretty much hold that with a few dips and raises every now and then due to the engine not being able to maintain 3600 rpm perfectly, and the VR only being able to compensate so much.

As mentioned a UPS might help clean up the power a bit...... You might also consider a Line/Power Conditioner. This is what we used overseas to clean up dirty power for computers and sensitive equipment that wouldn't tolerate the dirty power.

We had pallets of these in Korea;


ripp Lite Line Conditioner - 600 Watt (LS604WM)