Room Preparation for NMR instrument

Ulrike Werner-Zwanziger (uwerner@indiana.edu)
Tue, 01 Dec 1998 09:58:27 -0500

Dear Colleagues,

we are preparing an area for a 200 MHz NMR spectrometer for our
chemistry teaching laboratory. Since it has to go cheap, I would like to
ask your opinion on the necessity of the following items. In particular
I would like to know:

-- Concerning fluorescent lights, do they cause problems? Which
frequencies do they typically emit. (In the room I could detect 160 MHz,
125 MHz, 80 MHz, 64 MHz on the oscilloscope mostly related to a weather
station.) Are these frequencies clean enough to cause identifiable
spikes or do they vary? Is it worth the money to install a special
low-RF light ballast (on 15 lights in the room)?

-- Do you regard a separate earthing cable aside from the earth in the
normal three prong connectors a worthwhile investment?

-- Could you please comment on the effects to consider from conduits and
piping in the ceiling close to the magnet.

If there is interest, I can post a summary of comments later.
Thank you very much.

Ulrike

--
Ulrike Werner-Zwanziger
Department of Chemistry
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405

Phone: (812) 856-4629 Fax: (812) 855-8300 WWW: http://nmr.chem.indiana.edu/~uwz