[TowerTalk] Heat from nearby lightning strikes...

[Roger (K8RI) on TT]

Gas discharge units "do work", but unfortunately their advertising 
department, or whoever wrote the add, has no understanding of how they work.
That is enough to turn off knowledgeable "potential" customers.
IOW, that add probably cost them more customers than it gained.

73

Roger (K8RI)


On 5/30/2016 Monday 9:03 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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>
>
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-- 

73

Roger (K8RI)


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