[TowerTalk] LIGHTNING PROTECTION TowerTalk Digest, Vol 236, Issue 21
Gene Smar
ersmar at verizon.net
Sat Aug 20 16:50:02 EDT 2022
Pete:
I took similar precautions on my rotator control cable. I wound six turns of the cable around some 2 inch pvc just underneath the rotator shelf and at the bottom of the tower, where it enters a steel box. I used zip ties to hold the wraps in place. IIRC, I read that here on TT decades ago, before I erected my tower. I have a polyphaser arrestor on that cable in another steel box outside the shack.
I also have a single turn loop in the coax from a chimney-mounted vhf vertical antenna, per the instruction manual.
73 deGene Smar AD3F
Sent from my Radio Shack TRS-80 model 100 laptop
On Sat, Aug 20, 2022 at 12:40 PM, Steve Davis | Davis RF<sdavis at davisrf.com> wrote: Yes to the turns, but you can never provide complete protection, so , as James said, use Polyphasers. When you compare the low cost of 3 of those per transmission line (top of tower, bottom, and at your entrance panel), it is a very small % of what I have seen for customers’ $ lightning damages, and then sold the Polyphasers to them… “you can pay me now, or pay later”
Steve Davis, K1PEK DAVIS RF Co. DAVIS ROPE AND CABLE, LLC
Saturday, August 20, 2022 at 12:00 PM
1. Lightning protection (?) for Ameritron RCS-10 antenna switch
(Pete Smith N4ZR)
2. Lightning protection (?) for Ameritron RCS-10 antenna switch
(Rob Atkinson)
3. Re: Lightning protection (?) for Ameritron RCS-10 antenna
switch (J. Hunt)
4. Re: Lightning protection (?) for Ameritron RCS-10 antenna
switch (Floyd Rodgers)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2022 21:22:57 -0400
From: Pete Smith N4ZR <pete.n4zr at gmail.com>
To: TowerTalk <TowerTalk at contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Lightning protection (?) for Ameritron RCS-10
antenna switch
Message-ID: <213888cb-3565-88b3-355d-8658e7de67c2 at gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
I just bought a new Ameritron RCS-10 to replace my old switch, which was
damaged by lightning.? In reading the instructions, I was struck by the
suggestion of making? 2 6" diameter turns in each coax line coming into
the relay box at the tower, no more than 3 feet from the switch itself,
what they call "lightning retarding loops."
I don't think I've ever seen this anywhere else, and wonder if there's
anything to it. It doesn't seem as if there would be enough inductance
in such loops to offer any degree of protection.
--
73, Pete N4ZR
Check out the new Reverse Beacon Network
web server at<https://reversebeacon.net>.
For spots, please use your favorite
"retail" DX cluster.
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2022 06:23:21 -0500
From: Rob Atkinson <ranchorobbo at gmail.com>
To: towertalk <towertalk at contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Lightning protection (?) for Ameritron RCS-10
antenna switch
Message-ID:
<CALWD7Z6CYnD+YXhHH6pqm2RZ++R4WbP20_VyNgmDJrv5pd+62w at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
It's a good thing to do. It won't fully protect but it will add some
X(L) in series with the strike RF. You frequently see a one turn
loop in the feed to an AM tower from the tuning house for the same
reason. By the way, it's also advisable to take excess power cord
length in your shack and wrap them into coil bundles for the same
reason. Making it harder to go one way means it's easier to go the
way you want it to, but you have to have an easier way like a low
resistance path directly to ground.
73
Rob
K5UJ
>I just bought a new Ameritron RCS-10 to replace my old switch, which was damaged by lightning. In reading the instructions, I was struck by the suggestion of making 2 6" diameter turns in each coax line coming into the >relay box at the tower, no more than 3 feet from the switch itself, what they call "lightning retarding loops."
>I don't think I've ever seen this anywhere else, and wonder if there's anything to it. It doesn't seem as if there would be enough inductance in such loops to offer any degree of protection.
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2022 12:05:28 +0000 (UTC)
From: "J. Hunt" <ki5dq at yahoo.com>
To: towertalk <towertalk at contesting.com>, Rob Atkinson
<ranchorobbo at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Lightning protection (?) for Ameritron RCS-10
antenna switch
Message-ID: <706956280.598971.1660997128111 at mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Agreed.Applied the same approach here, along with Polyphasers.?
Cheers N 73,JamesKI5DQ
On Saturday, August 20, 2022 at 06:23:47 AM CDT, Rob Atkinson <ranchorobbo at gmail.com> wrote:
It's a good thing to do.? It won't fully protect but it will add some
X(L) in series with the strike RF.? You frequently see a one turn
loop in the feed to an AM tower from the tuning house for the same
reason.? By the way, it's also advisable to take excess power cord
length in your shack and wrap them into coil bundles for the same
reason.? Making it harder to go one way means it's easier to go the
way you want it to, but you have to have an easier way like a low
resistance path directly to ground.
73
Rob
K5UJ
>I just bought a new Ameritron RCS-10 to replace my old switch, which was damaged by lightning.? In reading the instructions, I was struck by the suggestion of making? 2 6" diameter turns in each coax line coming into the >relay box at the tower, no more than 3 feet from the switch itself, what they call "lightning retarding loops."
>I don't think I've ever seen this anywhere else, and wonder if there's anything to it. It doesn't seem as if there would be enough inductance in such loops to offer any degree of protection.
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------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2022 15:24:53 +0000 (UTC)
From: Floyd Rodgers <kc5qbc at swbell.net>
To: TowerTalk <towertalk at contesting.com>, Pete Smith N4ZR
<pete.n4zr at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Lightning protection (?) for Ameritron RCS-10
antenna switch
Message-ID: <717824576.625235.1661009093884 at mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Old timer trick, at least two turn coils on anything exposed to lightning. Story was lightning does not make turns and will blow out and go to ground in straight?line. Now thinking the quick hi voltage spike will not destroy anything connected beyond?the coil would seem improbable.
On Friday, August 19, 2022 at 08:23:08 PM CDT, Pete Smith N4ZR <pete.n4zr at gmail.com> wrote:
I just bought a new Ameritron RCS-10 to replace my old switch, which was
damaged by lightning.? In reading the instructions, I was struck by the
suggestion of making? 2 6" diameter turns in each coax line coming into
the relay box at the tower, no more than 3 feet from the switch itself,
what they call "lightning retarding loops."
I don't think I've ever seen this anywhere else, and wonder if there's
anything to it. It doesn't seem as if there would be enough inductance
in such loops to offer any degree of protection.
--
73, Pete N4ZR
Check out the new Reverse Beacon Network
web server at<https://reversebeacon.net>.
For spots, please use your favorite
"retail" DX cluster.
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Subject: Digest Footer
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------------------------------
End of TowerTalk Digest, Vol 236, Issue 21
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