Connecting Extech 382200 Power Supply to MiniCircuits ZX60-6013E+ RF Amplifier Safely

This is regarding the study mentioned in my previous post titled "How to Unfaraday a Faraday Cage".  In this study, we will be needing to use a couple of RF amplifiers distributed by Minicircuits with the model # ZX60-6013E+ (http://www.minicircuits.com/pdfs/ZX60-6013E+.pdf), as well as a conditioned power source to supply power to them (being the Extech 382200 found at http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Extech/382200/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtd%2b2RMOh0Ly7qb3JS4s7DRPHutssAu1YU%3d).  

The issue we are facing in trying to supply power to the ZX60-6013E+ amplifier is that it only has two power prongs.  One is labelled "+12VDC", and the other is labelled "GND" (where is "-12VDC"??). Also, our Extech 382200 power supply only has + and - power outputs as you would expect (though no GND connector).  The voltage level is user definable, and the total current output is 1A.

The big question here is how do we connect this Extech power supply to the Minicircuits amplifier properly?     

My Ph.D. is in psychology, and not in electrical engineering, so I would really appreaciate any input on this matter from any experts (or even journeymen) who might have some valuable input on this matter.  We really need to power up our preamplifiers for our Faraday cage study to work out properly.  

 

Best regards,

Richard Knowles, Ph.D.

Sofia University

Palo Alto, CA 

You need to apply +12V between the power pin and ground of the mini circuits part. Most RF power amps do not have dual supplies, they use single ended.
So the red terminal on your power supply goes to plus on the mini circuits device, and the black to the ground pin.
The power supply black and red connection just means that the red terminal is more positive the the black. Which side is "ground" will be determined by other factors, sometimes power supplies have a third "ground" terminal, which can be linked to the appropriate power supply terminal to determine the polarity with respect to ground, since the power supply outputs will be floating. If the power supply has a metal case, it should be grounded to the mains, but neither the red or black terminal should be connected to the case, verify that with an ohm-meter. In your case the ground will likely be determined by other factors, the case and cable screens on the amplifier will probably be "grounded" elsewhere, particularly if you have mains powered test equipment hooked up to the rf system. I assume that the power supply is linear, not switch mode. If it is switch mode, be aware that the high frequency switching components may get through to your power amp,
Cheers,
Richard

Thank you so much, Richard Gabric. It looks like this is a simpler issue than I thought, and converging evidence that I'm getting from yourself and others is suggesting that I connect the red lead from the power supply to the "+" prong on the amplifier, while connecting the black lead from the power supply to the "GND" prong on the amplifier. The power supply itself doesn't have a ground terminal to connect to electronics, but appears to be grounded to the mains ground line since it's own power cable has three prongs on it instead of two. I think we will be fine by connecting the power supply to the amplifier in this way, and I'll let you know how it works when we try it out in the next day or so. Thanks again!