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Re: [TowerTalk] Gas Tube protection for remote antenna switch's

To: "towertalk@contesting.com" <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Gas Tube protection for remote antenna switch's
From: "Jim Brown" <jim@audiosystemsgroup.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:34:11 -0700
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
On Tue, 27 Jul 2010 06:32:53 -0700, Jim Thomson wrote:

>## ok... this brings up another point.   What about your super high Z  
>choke baluns, when used on a yagi ?  They will also look like a high Z
>.. and probably 45-90 uh. 

At the frequencies where we use them, they have a high resistive impedance. 
At the lower frequencies where lightning dominates, they look like a lossy 
inductance. 

>Have you ever measured the uh on them...say from braid of input to the 
>choke.. to the braid on the output side ??     What kind of readings do 
>you get ?? say with a run of the mill simple LCR meter. Or is the resistive
>component so high, that there is little uh.

That's exactly what I am measuring, except that I'm using a different test 
circuit that gives me better accuracy. Rather than measure uH directly, I can 
compute it from the resonance curve. You can see values for typical chokes 
both in the tutorial and the Power Point slides. These are computed values 
from measured impedance curves, and are most accurate near resonance. 
Accuracy is not nearly as good at frequencies well below resonance, but it's 
"in the ballpark." 

>## what happens when lightning hits the DE of the yagi..or will it opt to  
hit the boom /other ele's  instead ?? 

Yes, the choke would likely help it choose the lower impedance path of the 
boom and tower to earth. Of course, if there's enough of it, it may explode 
the choke. :) 

>##  On the INPUT to my remote switch box on the mast, abt 3' above the top 
of the tower, is  where I have the 
>type-31    choke balun.   This is to just supplement the existing  bead 
baluns at each yagi's  DE.    The idea here was,
>if  RF spillover gets past the existing type 43  bead baluns.... it won't 
get past the type-31 balun on the input to the
>remote switch box.   The type-31 balun of course, is being used on all 
bands..since it's on the input to the remote switch 
>box. 

Doubling up on the chokes is a good thing. The best place for any choke is as 
close as possible to the feedpoint of the antenna itself. That essentially 
disconnects the feedline from the antenna as far as common mode current is 
concerned. Any feedline between the choke and the antenna can carry common 
mode current, coupling noise. Adding the second more robust choke simply 
makes it a better disconnection. 

>## speaking of lightning arrestor's.... mine was slated to go at the base of
>the new crank up tower.. and tied in to the 3 x cadwelded  8' rods, buss 
>system, etc.   

I put my arrestors at the coax entry window by the shack. My tower is 100 ft 
from the house and 250 ft from the shack, with no connection to either other 
than coax and control wiring. Remember that an arrestor attempts to kill the 
differential voltage on the coax to protect RX front ends. Grounding the 
braid kills common mode, which is the bulk of the strike. 

73, Jim K9YC


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