[Elecraft] Rig Insurance

[Jerry Moore]

Hi Don,
    Sounds like very good advice to me. I was very surprised when I heard
the pop. I'm newly getting back into the hobby and moved my shack from the
bedroom on one end of the house to my office on the opposite side. I have a
lot of wiring items on my list which includes a 240vac circuit and heavy
ground from the actual panel ground rod which I'll tie into a ground rod at
my end and common all grounds in a subpanel in the office. In addition I'm
planning a plate with throughole connectors for my coax that's grounded to
the same point, then a manual coax switch (I'll have a remote coax switch
for switching antennas, just can't find the outside unit yet).

The resistor idea sounds like a plan as well. 
jer 

-----Original Message-----
From: Don Wilhelm [mailto:w3fpr at embarqmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, August 07, 2015 1:05 PM
To: ae4pb at carolinaheli.com; elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Rig Insurance

Jerry,

Even though ARRL offers good and comprehensive insurance coverage for your
ham gear, you talked about an arc from your coax connector.
The best insurance for that condition is to make certain there is a DC path
across each of your feedlines to dissipate such a static charge.
A 5k to 50k 1 watt non-reactive resistor will normally do that job nicely.
An in-line antenna switch to switch the transceiver to a dummy load (or an
open) is good additional insurance.  If you do use an antenna switch, you
may be able to open it and install the above mentioned resistors inside.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 8/7/2015 11:13 AM, ae4pb at carolinaheli.com wrote:
> I'm wondering with such a large investment in gear if anyone has special
> insurance just for their station? I'm pretty OCD about disconnecting my
> station when not in use (major pain) and actually had my coax arch
connector
> arc over recently (I keep rubber covers over the connectors when not
> connected) when a storm was near and there was a lightning hit up the
road.
>
>   
>
> It would be a real shame to invest in a lifetime rig and lose it to
> something silly like a storm/fire..etc.
>