[TowerTalk] Heat from nearby lightning strikes...

[Kevin Stover]

The bane of human technological advance.

The Marketing Department.

They've got to have jobs too.

On 5/30/2016 8:03 AM, Patrick Greenlee wrote:
> All towers are lightning magnets so we are or should be interested in 
> protection but... Is it just me or does anyone else have a problem 
> (Problem = old fashioned term for issue) with the advertising copy below?
>
> Arc Gas Discharge
> *Lightning Protection*
>
> OPEK MODEL: LP-350A
>
> Warmer temperatures bring an increased thunderstorm activity. So, now 
> is the time to protect your radios. A good way to do this is with 
> lightning protectors that utilize 'arc-gas' discharge tubes. Heat from 
> nearby lightning strikes rapidly expand the gas inside the tubes 
> opening the antenna feedline much quicker that old fashion surge 
> protectors.
>
>
> What a revelation, all these years I thought the gas tubes ionized 
> above a certain potential offering lightning induced currents a low 
> impedance path to ground thus protecting equipment further down the 
> coax. But now we know that heat from nearby lightning strikes 
> expanding the gas to create an "open" is the agent of protection not 
> ionized gas offering a low impedance path to ground.  (all those years 
> studying physics... wasted.) Associative memory... I recall a flight 
> attendant on a red eye from Dulles to San Diego instructing the 
> sparsely occupied cabin that in the event of sudden loss of cabin 
> pressure masks would deploy from the ceiling and that we should grasp 
> the mask firmly, give a tug to start the flow of oxygen, place the 
> mask over our navel and continue to breathe normally. Maybe later she 
> got a job writing advertising copy.
>
> Patrick        NJ5G
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-- 
R. Kevin Stover
AC0H
ARRL
FISTS #11993
SKCC #215
NAQCC #3441



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