I plan to ground the coax shields at the top and bottom of the tower; I will
also ground the center conductors of the coax runs at the tower base via ICE or
similar products. I was thinking about going a step further and using coax
relays (after the ICE/MOV products) to have the antennas grounded when the
relays are not energized. The antennas would only be connected back to the
shack when I hit the 12V switch back in the shack.
In order to save on wire cost, I was thinking about putting the relays at the
cable entrance panel on the outside of my house -- this would cut down on the
relay wire from 220' to about 20' and eliminate the concern of voltage sag as
well; but I am not sure how effective it would be versus mounting the relays at
the base of the tower. The house entrance panel will have ICE/MOV surge
suppressors as well.
My question -- given the shield grounding and center conductor grounding as
described above, does this relay-based approach add any meaningful lightning
safety to my installation (at either the tower base or house entrance panel)?
The coax relays I am thinking of using are pretty small (Tohtsu CX-600M) so if
the surge suppressors don't work as I expect them to, my feeling is that these
relays will get destroyed by the first strike.
Has anyone done this or something similar? I would appreciate hearing about
your experience.
thanksMatKK1C
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