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Re: [TowerTalk] surge arrestors or good grounding?

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] surge arrestors or good grounding?
From: Jim Brown <jim@audiosystemsgroup.com>
Reply-to: jim@audiosystemsgroup.com
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2015 20:39:26 -0700
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
On Wed,8/5/2015 8:06 PM, Grant Saviers wrote:
I'm wondering what commercial practice is re surge arrestors?

I note the max power ratings for DIN connector arrestors is 250 watts at least at Tessco. Many are frequency selective. PolyPhasers claim 2500 watts 1.5MHz to UHF.

Change the word "claims" to "rates." The power rating corresponds to the voltage at which the discharge tube inside the arrestor is rated to trip. In general, we want the protector to trip at the lowest possible voltage above the level of our transmitters. I'm running legal limit on HF, so I'm using their highest rated protectors on all the HF antennas except 30M.

With top and bottom tower bonding to a ground rod grid and 125' to tower in a trench with the shack entry plate feedthrough grounded to a 200' perimeter footing Ufer, to center pin arrestors do anything useful?

Lightning is not a DC event, it is an RF event, and there are currents induced in virtually every conductor. RF voltage is induced between center and shield by current on the shield, the ratio of which is called the Transfer Impedance of the shield. A lightning protector on coax shorts the center to the shield, but thanks to wavelength effects and that induced current, there can be substantial voltage between center and shield several hundred feet away.

Tower and trench coax is all DIN terminated hardline, so it would make sense to connect to a DIN connector arrestor (if useful), but no such QRO animal seems to exist.

That may be true, but maybe not. DIN connectors are all the rage for UHF systems, so the arrestors that are made with DINs will depend on the power levels that are common in those systems. You need to find the complete Polyphaser catalog. Here's a very good dealer for Polyphaser, he's a ham, and he likes dealing with hams.

http://wrblock.com/PolyPhaser/PolyPhaser.html

I've standardized on UHF connectors for everything in my station at HF and below. I have only a few runs with Ns. All my hardline has been acquired used, some with connectors, some without, so how they are connectorized depends on a combination of luck and what connectors I can find that fit those lines. All are Ns, most females, so I use N jumpers as required. I'm active on 6M, and have Ns on that run, also on a 2M Yagi. The VHF-only runs have protectors rated for lower power.

73, Jim K9YC


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