Topband: OT - disconnecting coax and rotor/control cable

[Gary Smith]

Don't know where best to post this and I 
respect the knowledge base here so I'll 
ask with the OT in the subject line. I'm 
getting to the point I want to do less 
effort and still do things right. I had 
lightning damage to a K3 and don't want to 
do that again. 

What enters the house are: 

- RX antenna controller cables One with 5 
wires, one with 6.
- Antenna rotor cable 6 wires. 
- The remote coax switch 7 wires.  
- Two coax going to the amplifiers.
- Two RG-6 coax going to the Rx antennas.

I would also like to separate the 120 V 
strips at the same time

What I would like to do... is have one or 
two switches to flip that will allow 
disconnect of all of this. 

As it is now, I have to unscrew each coax 
each time I close the shack and re-attach 
the next time I'm in the shack. I made 
molex connectors for the Rx controller 
cables, have not yet done that with the 
rotor cable nor the remote coax cable. I 
unplug the power to the terminal strips

I was thinking of perhaps using relays (I 
have a lot of SS relays but don't think 
they would be usable in this endeavor. 
Maybe relays like in the old SB-220 where 
there were many individual relays 
activated at the same time, would work for 
control/rotor cables. But I wonder if the 
air gap in such a relay would be 
sufficient to be a barrier come another 
lightning issue. 

I have several vacuum & heavy contact air 
gap relays that could do the job for the 
coax. I also have some substantial relays 
I could use for the power cords involved.

If I were to have all this in one 
enclosure, it would be nice to get up, 
flip a few switches and walk away knowing 
my station is truly disconnected. At this 
point I have time to do anything, and I 
like making things, but only if it's worth 
the time.

Thoughts?

73,

Gary
KA1J