Stan: Growing up in the safety of the hills of West Virginia, I had little to no experience with "Thunder Snow", but out here on the flat lands of Indiana, it occurs just enough to keep you on your toes, but not enough to make you complacent.
Your mention of damage without receiving a direct hit rang a bell with me. My SGC antenna coupler was knocked out during a storm with no strikes in the immediate area. It seems that the control wires for it, which were lying on the ground, had picked up a spike. One of those wires connects to the CPU chip through only a diode, with no surge protection at all. They happily sold me a new CPU for a big price, and threw in the diode. I now have zener diodes and capacitors from the control and power lines to ground to give some protection. We should not overlook the small details such as this like SGC did. While it wouldn't help with a direct hit, it might avoid damage from induced spikes from a nearby hit, which is a more likely possibility. This might be good treatment for preamps, rotators, and other devices out there in harm's way.
Stan:
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in the safety of the hills of West Virginia, I had little to no experience with "Thunder Snow", but out here on the flat lands of Indiana, it occurs just enough to keep you on your toes, but not enough to make you complacent.
I just hope and pray I never see a "Sno-nado".
Jim
Your mention of damage without receiving a direct hit rang a bell with me. My SGC antenna coupler was knocked out during a storm with no strikes in the immediate area. It seems that the control wires for it, which were lying on the ground, had picked up a spike. One of those wires connects to the CPU chip through only a diode, with no surge protection at all. They happily sold me a new CPU for a big price, and threw in the diode. I now have zener diodes and capacitors from the control and power lines to ground to give some protection. We should not overlook the small details such as this like SGC did. While it wouldn't help with a direct hit, it might avoid damage from induced spikes from a nearby hit, which is a more likely possibility. This might be good treatment for preamps, rotators, and other devices out there in harm's way.
ReplyDelete