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PA3GMP > TECH 09.01.05 15:53l 79 Lines 2041 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 1510_PA3GMP
Read: DG5YM GUEST
Subj: Lightning protection
Path: DB0FHN<DB0RGB<DB0MRW<OK0PKL<OK0PPL<DB0RES<F6GGY<F4CEP<F3KT<ZS6FB<
ZS0DLD<ZS6RO<ZS0MEE
Sent: 050109/1242Z @:ZS0MEE.SRJ.GAU.ZAF.AF #:6759 [Meredale] $:1510_PA3GMP
From: PA3GMP@ZS0MEE.SRJ.GAU.ZAF.AF
To : TECH@WW
PA3GMP/TPK 1.83d Msg N§:1510 Date:07-03-2005 Time:14:26 SAST (-2 for UTC)
OK. I've just had a small demonstration about what South African lightning
can do to electronics. I spent a few hours repairing a 56k modem. You could
actually see the arcing damage on the board, but the VLSI chips had
miraculously survived (the analogue part of the circuit had protected the
rest of the modem by blowing the optocouplers) so we got it working again.
Anyway, I've heard terrible tales of woe. If two computers, disconnected
from everything else except from each other (through a back-to-back
Ethernet crosscable) still loose their network cards through lightning
induction in the UTP cable, there's not much you can do. In Holland we only
have a few thunderstorms a year, and unless local sections of the mains
or phone network get a direct hit somehow, lightning damage isn't common.
Here in South Africa things are different.
Which causes me to wonder: what is a *good* method of search protection? I
know, NOTHING can withstand a direct hit in a connected phone or mains
line, but there must be something you can do against most induction or
indirect peak damage. The local computer stores sell filters, suppressors
and plugs, but those tend to be cheap consumer-grade things with a few
capacitors at best. I have a computer network (UTP ethernet), a phoneline
(soon DSL) connection to a comms server, and of course a bunch of radios
(both HF and VHF/UHF) that I want to keep in one piece as much as I can. Of
course I will still unplug things whenever I can, but there will always be
times when lightning reaches my home before I can, and then there's
induction to be dealth with as well.
If anyone has experience with, or expertise on, surge protection and
methods to do it properly, I'd be most grateful for a few pointers into the
right direction!
TNX,
73 Frank ZS/PA3GMP
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