[TowerTalk] spark gap/ insulated tower

[jimlux]

Jim Miller wrote:
> Rain, interesting thought.  Can they be mounted horizontally so the raindrop
> will not tend to close the gap?  OR the contacts separately mounted up at 45
> degrees with the contact points of EACH pointed up so the rain will run away
> from the spark gap?  Can they be shielded?  With a plastic soda bottle or a
> plastic kit box?
> 
> I haven't seen these things but have been considering one and the pictures
> seem to be from a museum or belong in a dungeon or something.
> 
> 73, Jim
> 

Arrange em any old way..  you're looking at something to short on a 10kV 
potential at 10kA..  On high power MW broadcast, they use sphere gaps 
because the actual RF voltage is pretty high. At 1.5 kW on a ham rig 
feeding a 1/4 wave monopole with 35 ohm impedance.. You're not talking 
kilovolts here.

plastic bottle if you want is fine. Horizontal gap is fine. If a 
raindrop happens to bridge it when you're keydown with the high powered 
active antenna tuner at 5kVA, the raindrop vanishes in the blink of an eye.

If you live in a frost/snow area, that's more of an issue.