[Elecraft] [OT} Whole House Surge Protection

[Don Wilhelm]

Alan,

It should be a simple matter to open the strip and clip out the MOVs 
(unless the construction is glued plastic).

73,
Don W3FPR

On 2/1/2013 4:43 PM, Alan Bloom wrote:
> The problem is it is getting hard to find decent-quality outlet strips 
> that DON'T have surge protection built in.  I am currently building up 
> a second studio for KBBF-FM, a community bi-lingual station here in 
> Santa Rosa.  I wanted an outlet strip with some sockets spaced far 
> enough apart to accommodate several wall transformers.  I found the 
> perfect device at Home Depot, but it has surge protection built in.
>
> Should I crack it open and remove the MOVs?
>
> Alan N1AL
>
>
> On 2/1/2013 12:02 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
>> On 2/1/2013 10:21 AM, Mark Bayern wrote:
>>> Someone brought out the fact that a power strip or some other device
>>> with a surge protector built in should cover everything on that
>>> particular leg.  It's a parallel circuit.
>>
>> Nope.  ANY shunt mode device (MOV) operates by conducting the spike to
>> the green wire or the neutral.  The resulting current raises the voltage
>> on the green wire (which is connected to the chassis of the equipment
>> plugged into the "protected" outlet) to some very high value, depending
>> on the spike that sets it off. In the case of lightning, this can be 
>> a lot.
>>
>> Now, consider equipment connected to two different power strips, with or
>> without an MOV, or to different locations, or to another ground.  ALL of
>> those other points will be at a different potential as a result of
>> seeing the same spike, and again, in the case of lightning, that can be
>> a VERY large difference. it is the DIFFERENCE in potential from one
>> piece of gear to the other that fries those Ethernet ports, and it would
>> also fry signal interconnect circuitry for audio and video.
>>
>> THIS is why MOVs are a really bad idea on branch circuits. Those of us
>> working in pro audio have LOTS of interconnected equipment, often at
>> widely separated points, so we learned all of this the hard way nearly
>> 20 years ago. Our solution has been to use SERIES-MODE Surge Protectors,
>> and that has been quite effective.  SurgeX and Brick Wall are the only
>> two companies I know of that have licensed the series mode patent. Their
>> products are not cheap, but they work.  I have SurgeX protectors on all
>> of my ham gear, computers, and audio/video gear.
>>
>> 73, Jim K9YC
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