It is important to ground those disconnected coax cables in the shack...
like using the ground buss Stuart mentions... as I have seen the damage
an arc from the end of a disconnected coax plug can do.
For example, it happened at my friend's SW listening post. He heard
thunder from an approaching storm while listening to the radio, and
quickly started disconnecting his radios, etc., and it struck his
antenna before he could finish the task -- the arc blew across his desk,
scorching the desk top, and into one of his radios. He said it was
awesome and scary and scorched the desk, toasted the radio, and
adversely affected some other stuff (phone, calculator, computer, etc.)
while it arced.
Seeing the aftermath, I am convinced Stuart is right... you gotta ground
out the loose, disconnected coax or it could arc and cause much damage
as if it were connected. Although he is only an SWL, I doubt there is
any difference between a receiving antenna and a transmitting antenna in
this matter.
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Happy Trails.
======================= Richards / K8JHR =========================
On 9/9/2011 21:06, Carl Moreschi wrote:
Another thing to remember to disconnect when a storm is coming is the
phone line. I draw an imaginary circle around all my stuff on the
operating bench and disconnect everything that crosses that line. This
makes my entire shack isolated from the outside world.
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