"Dloyd Lavies" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Mar 23, 8:25?pm, "Jeff" wrote:
I've heard stories that it's possible to damage transceivers during
use. Can anyone explain to me the kinds of things that can kill a
rig? I'm thinking about buying my first one and I'm a bit paranoid
that, in the process of learning the ropes, I'll damage the thing
somehow. I'm from a fairly technical background so I understand
things like...uh, don't run it without an antenna, or a decent ground,
or without an antenna tuner....etc. But what else can happen? Can
anyone offer a newbie some help/advice? Thanks.

Jeff,

You mentioned some of the obvious things, but other possible damaging
things are releated to lighting, static electricity, running a mis-
matched load for an antenna, or using under rated components such as
wiring, coax or power supplies. Such examples are things like
unscrewing the coax from a tuner without touching ground first. The
possiblity here is if you touch the center conductor without grounding
yourself first, static electricity can emit from your body and damage
your radio, this is more of a problem during the winter months.
During summer, lighting is an issue and it does not have to be a
direct strike to cause damage. Case in point, I had a radio sustain
damage when my neighbor across the street had a direct strike to a
tree in their backyard. I did have the antenna connected but
suprisingly, it was an indoor antenna mounted in my attic.
Furthermore, I know of an incident where the antenna was disconnected
but the radio was still plugged into the wall, in this example
transist excessive voltage/amps occured to the house AC mains due to a
strike to the power grid, which in turn caused damage to the internal
supply of the radio. I usually disconnect my radios from the house
mains and antennas when there are thunderstorms in the area or not in
use. I don't know where you live, but I know from reading one ham's
web site, that central Florida has some really bizarre lighting
activity, like getting direct hits when the storms are 30 miles away.
Furthermore, of course running a mismatched antenna without a tuner or
running too small or mismatched coax may cause finals to fail if your
rig does not have circuit protection, and if circuit protection kicks
in, you should cease operation and repair the condition causing the
mismatch. Running a power supply that is too small can also cause
problems, such as to the regulation or other circuits in the radio,
but you will probably notice poor performance before any actual damage
occurs. Another thing to prevent damage is to ensure proper polarity
when you hook up the rig to the power supply. Sounds stupid, but
there are experienced people out there who have damage a rig by
hooking it up backwards to the supply/battery. These are some of the
more common rig damaging things, but I am sure there are others in the
group who can give examples of issues that I have not considerd.

Dloyd

As a for instance. I have a friend whose several rigs were "taken out" by a
lightning strike, but NOT a direct strike.
He realized that a storm was pending, so he did all the right things. He
disconnected his antenna lead-ins, unplugged the radios from the AC power
source and waited out the storm. When he plugged them back in, he had
nothing. Zero. Three new Yaesu HF rigs were ruined.
What happened? He had not disconnected the rigs from the common ground line.
There was a lightning strike, he said, about a block from his house, and the
surge that traveled through the damp soil and into his ground was enough to
wipe out his rigs.
It is with his experience in mind that I rigged up a knife switch for my
common ground wires where they exit the house. I now can isolate my rigs
completely and, if necessary, can easily remove the ground wire from the
switch should I be concerned that lightning will "jump" the switch.