I must strongly disagree.
By disconnecting cables inside your shack in lieu of (instead of) any
lightning protection, you are leaving your house open to a fire started by
the arc-over from lightning in any open circuit cable from the outside
(SO-259, telephone line, dangling PL-259, etc.) I think it's just stupid to
just disconnect the equipment and not have Polyphasers or other similar
device on each cable entering the house.
I keep all of my equipment connected all of the time, including IC-781 (with
Beverage and HF antenna cables connected), IC-4KL, 4 PacketCluster radios, 6
rotor control boxes, PCs, telephone wires, etc). I have a 24/7 fully
operational station.
If you've seen my website www.erols.com/n3rr , you know I have substantial
lightning protection installed.
Bill, N3RR
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Gilmer, N2MG" <n2mg@eham.net>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2002 8:51 AM
Subject: [Towertalk] re: bulkhead ground system
> N5OT wrote:
> > > I still just disconnect everything when I am not using the station.
>
> This is probably the single most effective method for protecting your
> amateur equipment. Even the SPG cannot be counted on entirely
> protecting your stuff from nasties. And one does not need to take a
> full hit to receive damage. Close-by hits generate all kinds of
> transients that take out stuff like phones, modems and trasceiver filter
> switching diodes all the time.
>
> I practice good hygiene and usually have the PL-259s (and all the AC,
> phone lines, LAN cables) disconnected at my station. However, the
> antenna/rotator/etc. wires still pass through something (a window or a
> wall) and enter the house. It is at that point one has allowed
> "lightning" (or its effects) to enter and somehow at or near that point
> it should be dealt with - enter the SPG.
>
> Mike N2MG
>
>
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