"Tom Horne" wrote
...
On Sep 28, 10:20 am, "Rick" wrote:
How does one protect against these without breaking the bank doing so ?

Go on Mousers web site and look at gas tubes made by Littelfuse. Go to
Littelfuses web site from the link on Mousers site and check out the specs
on gas tubes. Compare them to the specs on your $50-70 commercial
lightning
arrestor.
Then note that what's in that little casting box is two coax connectors,
one
capacitor and one $2-3 gas tube and you have the answer to your question.
Myth revealed.

Rick K2XT

Rick or anyone else for that matter.

Can anyone suggest a strategy for reasonably safe operation of a
station when lightning is actually present in the area. The stations
located at the weather service offices are used to receive real time
weather reports from AROs. If they go off the air during lightning
events the whole network becomes useless to the weather service.
Television and radio stations continue to operate even after direct
strikes to their antennas so it must be possible to provide protection
that does not involve shutting down when lightning is present. Can
anyone draw me a written sketch of how that gets done so that I can
make a more knowledgeable decision on whether or not to try to
replicate the technique.

Here are the two ways.

1. Provocation of lightning strikes, or
2. Eliminating of lightning strikes.

The instalation are the same only "tipping" is different. The blunt
provocate and the sharp eliminate.
Which is better I do not know.
S*