The History of TGV - IK1TGV

The Italian post ministry  gave me the name IK1TGV: it  is a name to which I am very fond, the TGV is the "Train à Grande Vitesse" that on the French rail network links Paris to major capitals of France, but also achieves some big European cities such as Geneva, Zurich, Bern, Luxembourg, Brussels and Milan, via Turin.
On test the TGV between Paris and Strasbourg has reached on the3 April 2007 the speed record of 574.8 km / h in a convoy called V150 equipped with engines capable of developing 19.6 MW
The TGV normally used for traveling on special lines at a speed of 320 km / h with engines of 9.3 MW
The first TGV came into operation for the first time between Paris and Lyon in September 1981, using the first of the new line built between Saint-Florentin and Sathonay-Camp, near Lyon.
The first TGV worked with DC motors powered by reversible rectifiers.
At the end of the eighties, the development of power electronics allowed to replace DC motors with synchronous motors fed by inverter thyristor (1988) and later with IGBT inverter.
The use of synchronous motors has several advantages:
simpler engines and more lightweight at the same power output:
TGV PSE: 12 DC motors from 535 kW each 1560 kg heavy
A TGV (Atlantique): 8 engines of 1100 kW each 1450 kg heavy
starting power high (1150 kW / motor for TGV A) the absence of brushes and their collectors (no problem switching and reduced maintenance)
The inverter used to power the motors in alternating present a better power factor than rectifiers used to drive DC motors. The power factor of a convoy TGV PSE is always less than 0.8 while that of a TGV A is greater than 0.95.


Here's to all my radioamateur friends I am ... a train!
In radio I  transmit almost exclusively in CW, but my colleague in frequency need not to fear, in CW  I am not a TGV! My transmission speed varies from 20 to 30 WPM at most.

Musica : Jacques Hoffenbach - Orphée aux Enfers , Ouverture