[TenTec] Argonaut VI Lost RX/TX on 160/80 Meters

[Stuart Rohre]

Failures where they do not do closer than board isolation are concerning 
to us hams.  We all want to know what and why the failure?

Sounds like you were doing most things to prevent lightning damage. 
However, have you had some windy days just before the failure happened?

You might have been the victim of wind static on a wire or even a beam 
antenna element.

Adding the surge protection and the bleed resistor are good ways to 
discharge any wind static build up before it reaches critical voltage.

I had not thought about the new generation of rigs having such small 
components that diagnosis might not be possible without special tools.

It leads me to conclude, to fit all future antennas with static bleed 
off components.

For Field Days when our club ran multi-wavelength loops,
We successfully used 150 K ohm 2 watt or 1 watt resistors from each side 
of the balanced feeder to a ground lead to a metal tent stake driven 
completely into the soil beside the operating position.

The year prior to the adoption of that safety aid, we had wind static 
from a storm 10 miles away arc through  the plastic on a wire nut to a 
grounded point.  The plastic wire nut insulator was rated at 600 volts.

-Stuart Rohre
K5KVH