All towers are lightning magnets so we are or should be interested in
protection but... Is it just me or does anyone else have a problem
(Problem = old fashioned term for issue) with the advertising copy below?
Arc Gas Discharge
*Lightning Protection*
OPEK MODEL: LP-350A
Warmer temperatures bring an increased thunderstorm activity. So, now is
the time to protect your radios. A good way to do this is with lightning
protectors that utilize 'arc-gas' discharge tubes. Heat from nearby
lightning strikes rapidly expand the gas inside the tubes opening the
antenna feedline much quicker that old fashion surge protectors.
What a revelation, all these years I thought the gas tubes ionized above
a certain potential offering lightning induced currents a low impedance
path to ground thus protecting equipment further down the coax. But now
we know that heat from nearby lightning strikes expanding the gas to
create an "open" is the agent of protection not ionized gas offering a
low impedance path to ground. (all those years studying physics...
wasted.) Associative memory... I recall a flight attendant on a red eye
from Dulles to San Diego instructing the sparsely occupied cabin that in
the event of sudden loss of cabin pressure masks would deploy from the
ceiling and that we should grasp the mask firmly, give a tug to start
the flow of oxygen, place the mask over our navel and continue to
breathe normally. Maybe later she got a job writing advertising copy.
Patrick NJ5G
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