On Jun 13, 5:26*am, "Brian Gregory [UK]" wrote:
"BDK" wrote in message

...

Never heard of such a thing. I use insulators at each end, and in the
old days I used a neon bulb or a 12V tail light bulb as a bleed off. I
went to gas discharge tube arrestors a long time ago. The 12V bulb made
a really nice light show on winter days when the wind was really going.

What kind of buld exactly is a "12V tail light bulb"?

--

Brian Gregory. (In the UK)

To email me remove the letter vee.

The 12 VDC Auto Tail Light Bulb has a Tungsten
Element which is a relatively High Resistance
and functions as a constant {always-on} bleed
resister to drain any static electricity before it
could build-up. Cheaper that a Resister and the
Mini-Coils of the Tungsten Element was way far
beyond the HF Band so it only functioned as a
Resister and not a Coil {Inductor} when used with
a SWL [HF] Antenna. ~ RHF

Never saw one of these 12 VDC Tail Light Bulbs
'glow' because they were constantly bleeding-off
the Static Electricity before it had a chance to
build-up -but- using a Neon NE-2 Bulb will 'glow'
if the Static Electricity does build-up to trigger it.
That is why using an NE-2 Neon Bulb by itself is
not recommended since it is designed to Fire
only after the Static is already built-up.

Using a NE-2 Neon Bulb with a Bleed Resister
is often done with the idea that the NE-2 is an
Overload 'fail-safe' should the Bleed Resister
fail of there is a not to distant Lightning Strike.

If you are already using a Matching Transformer
Balun/Unun with your SWL Antenna the the Bleed
Resister generally is not needed or required.

~ RHF