[TowerTalk] Heat from nearby lightning strikes...

[David Robbins]

Basic bull... too many things wrong with it to even start counting.

David Robbins K1TTT
e-mail: mailto:k1ttt at arrl.net
web: http://wiki.k1ttt.net
AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://k1ttt.net:7373


-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of
Patrick Greenlee
Sent: Monday, May 30, 2016 13:04
To: towertalk
Subject: [TowerTalk] Heat from nearby lightning strikes...

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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