Topband: improve the lightnings charges protect for my equipment 160m

[Brad Rehm]

Tzikas,

The only way to be certain your equipment is protected is to
disconnect it.  By this I mean that you should disconnect all of your
equipment from the antenna, the station ground, and the AC mains when
you're not using it.  Lightning surges can enter through any of these
paths.  If the station ground is connected while either the mains or
the antenna is connected, the surge can arrive through one of these
and end its path at the station ground, after doing a lot of damage
along the way.  Remember, too, that surges can arrive even during fair
weather conditions.  T-storms don't have to be in the vicinity.

Some other thoughts:

An RF choke across the coax is there to protect against a short in the
collector/drain blocking capacitor in the amp.  Not against incoming
lightning surges.

A lightining "protector" in series with the coax mainly protects the
coax from over-voltage breakdowns.  It may offer some protection for
the equipment, but unless it is installed properly, it will accomplish
little or nothing.

Sorry to see that you took such a bad hit.  Hope you can get
everything running again soon.

73,
Brad
KV5V

On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 10:21 AM, tzikas tzik <tzitzikas77 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello. I have a amplifier for 160m. 3 days ago a storm strikes my
> transmitting area, and two lightnings strikes one of the building wherein i
> have install
> my vertical antenna's support rope. This building has lightning protect. The
> result of these strikes was to cause damage to my amplifier. In particular
> all of the output mosfets destroyed. My ground system is a single copper
> ground rode, 1,5m length.
> Here you can see the antenna tuner:
> http://natural-gas.webs.com/antenna-tuner.JPG
> I am using for protect against antenna high voltage charges a 2.5mH r.f
> choke which is connected between antenna feedpoint and ground system.
> But after these results i suppose that it isn't works well. I am looking for
> an idea, or a cheap product to improve the lightnings charges protect
> for my equipment. Thank you in advance.
> _______________________________________________
> UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
>