"Al Klein" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 30 Jul 2006 07:51:41 -0400, "DougSlug"
wrote:

I would think that the lower the impedance, the better, since a dead short
on the antenna would be the ideal situation when disconnected. The reason
it's 50 Ohms is because that's a readily available terminator. I'm using
BNC connectors, so the effort is minimal. The down side of leaving it
connected all the time is that, without a lightning arrestor, a strike
would
probably damage the receiver, so I'm going to disconnect it in any case.
I
don't think the 10K would protect against that.

Nothing, not even a dead short with #4 wire to ground, will protect
against a direct lightning strike - you're talking millions of amps.
And a 10k will protect against static buildup.

A 50 ohm termination is used to terminate unused outputs on a
splitter, because the only way the splitter will work properly is to
have a 50 ohm termination on each output - either cable to a receiver
or a non-inductive resistor.

All true, but my point is that the receiver already has a 2.2K resistor to
ground at the antenna input, so adding a 10K in parallel is completely
unnecessary. And using a 50 Ohm terminator on a disconnected antenna
downlead is no worse than using a 10K resistor. In either case, no
additonal wiring is needed, and the protection from static build-up is
there, which was the topic of the OP's question, I believe.

It still isn't clear why I should go to the trouble of wiring up a 10K
resistor on the antenna, and why using a 50-Ohm terminator on a disconnected
downlead isn't just as good (possibly better).

We do agree that, without a lightning arrestor, it's better to disconnect
the downlead during a nearby thunderstorm than to leave it connected with
just a 10K resistor, don't we? The method for draining static build-up may
vary, but both methods are valid.

- Doug