[Elecraft] Lightning concerns: Was: K4 Remote: My QTH vs. a friend's, many miles to the north

[Peter Hall]

Hello Jorge,

Thanks for an interesting thread, which elicited some good technical replies as well as some undeserved and rather haughty tut-tutting, presumably about valuable mail column-cm: the remedy for the latter is, of course, the delete button - a facility with which any reader of this mailer is well-practiced at using.

I get the point you're making and have considerable sympathy for it: in a highly connected, and possibly remote, environment is it desirable for a manufacturer to do better than baseline digital I/O protection, especially as manufacturers themselves tout the remote connectivity as a selling point? I think it is, and I appreciate that you're not asking for magic: e.g, for primary lightning protection.  Any increased port robustness, including galvanic isolation, is worth thinking about and - most importantly - so is bench and field serviceability.  The all-too-common madness of entry-level ports on a dense motherboard is well worth avoiding!

You mention the KPA1500 and I'm also a rather far-flung user of this PA.  I can, and do, re-invent as many wheels as I need to in order to run safely a local and remote station but the KPA1500 service situation is egregious: no schematic and not even a decent block diagram to show port internal connectivity etc.

Anyway, thanks again for the topic and the opportunity to register a vote for more robust I/O design, better serviceability and improved documentation.  I hope your challenges are behind you soon!

73, Peter (VK6HP)



-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net <elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On Behalf Of Jorge Diez - CX6VM
Sent: Monday, 6 May 2024 1:42 AM
To: Mike Fatchett W0MU <w0mu at w0mu.com>
Cc: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Lightning concerns: Was: K4 Remote: My QTH vs. a friend's, many miles to the north

hello

To finish with this topic, I was just wondering if a device that is intended for use in remote stations, always connected and in some cases with no one to disconnect during storms, could not have a better USB connector, for example

If he tells me it can't be done, fine, my question has been answered and thank you very much.

time to move on to other virtues of Elecraft

73,
Jorge
CX6VM/CW5W