[Elecraft] ERR IO3 more!!

[W2RU - Bud Hippisley]

On May 1, 2011, at 9:25 AM, R. Kevin Stover wrote:

> Even with buried power lines?

Even with buried power lines.  Mine are buried.  Closest pole is 1/2-mile away.

Even with buried telephone lines.  Mine come to me under the lake I'm on.  But my phone lines used to come in at one end of my house, and the power lines at the other.  They now come in right next to each other -- both still buried all the way.  It cost me an excavation contractor to dig a trench for the phone company to move the telephone line to come in where my power cable entrance is, but after experiencing two separate $3000+ losses in earlier years, I figure the cost was well worth it.  Now all utilities (AC power, landline telco, and satellite TV cables) enter the house within two feet of each other, and their grounds are tied together directly below the AC power meter.  The grounds for all my feedlines and outdoor antenna control cables are at this point, also.

The most expensive things in my shack (or maybe my entire house, now that I think about it) to replace are my K3 and my amplifier.  The K3 and associated computer are fed off the same UPS, as are all accessories that have any connection to the K3 or amp (rotator control boxes, 12V DC supply for antenna switches, etc.).   I use WiFi to connect all my PCs (but especially my radio computer) to the outside world (including my home printers).  For my desktop PCs that don't have WiFi built in, I use inexpensive little NetGear USB WiFi adapters.  I want no surprises from "sneak" wiring paths coming to my radio equipment. Most of my ethernet cabling that I installed ten years ago is currently unused.

The amplifier isn't buffered from surges by a UPS.  The best I can do there is my whole-house surge suppressor across my AC mains plus having all my grounds in the shack tied together plus having all my exterior wires and utilities grounded at the same entry point to the building.  (Well, I could unplug the amp, I suppose.)

Today only three things in my home "bridge" the power and phone lines:  my fax machine (which I manually plug into the telephone line only when I'm sending or expecting a fax), the base station for my cordless telephone system, and my satellite TV receiver.  The cordless base is inexpensive to replace, I wish my fax machine would blow up so I would have an excuse to get a decent one, and except for HGTV and Wipeout I wouldn't miss the satellite TV at all.   We've had at least four major lightning storms come through this area in the past two weeks (probably more than we had all last summer!) and there were definitely some nearby hits (one second or less from flash to sound).  Nothing seems to have skipped a beat here.

Bud, W2RU