Came home from FL to find the K9AY loop rather sick – intermittent control and not much front to back.

Opened it up today – glad I had the bulkhead connections at the house all pulled, as the storm that came through early this month got the loop pretty good. The 470 ohm 2W carbon balance resistor now reads 1100 ohms but looks okay. The Heavy MOVs from both control lines to ground were blown open. One of the snubber diodes across one relay coil is also open. The ferrite binocular core transformer has multiple cracks and is being held together by the windings.

This is all easy to fix – an hours work. It’s worth checking your box now and then! In the store-bought K9AYs they use either ¼ or 1/8 watts balancing resistors – even more prone to getting zapped by a nearby strike. I see no evidence of a direct hit around here – just lots of ground currents flowing.

N4GG