[Elecraft] KPA100 diodes blown...

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

In truth an inductance like that may look like a large resistance to an
induced pulse from a nearby lightning strike. The RF from a lightning strike
occupies a huge chunk of the RF spectrum. 

The inductance will short the low frequency energy, but will develop
considerable voltage it at those frequencies where it has a lot of inductive
reactance. 

I've yet to see anything that is nearly as safe actually disconnecting and
grounding the antennas. After all, if you take a really close hit, not even
the antenna circuits in an old vacuum tube rig will survive.

IMX, ever since solid state gear appeared on board large ships years ago,
repairing blown "front ends" has been one of the more common repairs needed,
whether it's a 500 kHz NAVTXT receiver, HF SSB radio, VHF FM radio or even,
at times, an L-Band (1 GHz) GPS receiver! 

Ron AC7AC


-----Original Message-----
... plus I usually have 
the homebrew receiver selected which has a 3 turn coil as an antenna input, 
which should look like a short to any voltage, but enough voltage must get 
through everything to blow the diodes in the K2...

Brett
N2DTS