Bob Miller wrote:

On 20 Jan 2006 15:39:41 -0800, "junius" wrote:

They expect you to have your coax going through an expensive
Polyphaser grounding panel at your radio mains entrance, and the
lightning arrestor will automatically be grounded. What, no plate?
Then get another brand of arrestor that has a grounding screw :-)

One brand's as good as another; and none of them will actually do much
if you're directly hit by a good sizzler. Best bet is to disconnect
your antenna when it gets stormy. Or use an indoor antenna.

As a volunteer on several mountain-top repeater sites, I'd just like
to say that that is bull. Polyphaser and I.C.E. have good designs.
Other companies don't. I suggest you use Google to look up posts by
one Gary Coffman to explain the science behind it.

I think you're better off starting on the right foot and then
expanding as you go along. Start with a Polyphaser and a good ground
line. Then add the rest as you go. A ground window is nothing more
than a conductive plate -- get a sheet of aluminum or copper
elsewhere. Use copper flashing for strap. But don't confuse
Polyphaser for some Mississippi junk or greek-letter junk -- they
aren't in the same league.


OBTW, do your TV stations go off the air in lightning storms? The
ones here (excluding one *very* poorly run one) do not. Commercial
stations? nope. There's a reason for that -- they get hit all the
time, but their grounding systems handle the strikes just fine.


bob
k5qwg

Okay, so quite a few folks here have heaped praise on Polyphaser's
lightning protection devices, so I decided to have a look see at their
website. My interest in such devices is limited exclusively to
receive-only applications. I have a few questions which I hope that
someone here might be able to help me out on:

First off, up to now, the lightning protection units I've used were of
the variety that I would simply connect a grounding wire to the device.
Looking at the Polyphaser website, I'm seeing it specified that
Polyphaser's IS-50 units "should be mounted to a bracket or a flat
single point grounding panel." So, is it really required that these
units be "mounted" to something? Optimally, maybe I should have one,
but I'm afraid I don't have a "grounding panel" as such. Is it
inadequate simply to have a grounding wire connected to the device, as
might be done with a Transitrap or Zap Trapper unit?

Secondly, what exactly do they mean when it is stated that "This unit
is used primary on HF, UHF, and VHF radios that do not use a DC
voltage." Is this something pertaining specifically to ham
applications?

Thirdly, what are the differences between the IS-50 series and the B50
series. (I guess this gets into this mounting issue again?).

Thanks in advance for any help on these questions,

Junius

--
Eric F. Richards

"The weird part is that I can feel productive even when I'm doomed."
- Dilbert