[ICOM] Oh NO!!!!

[Roger (K8RI)]

On 4/19/2012 9:08 PM, Stephen Budensiek wrote:
> Ron,
>     The 756Pro has a real bad habit of trashing the pair of driver
> transistors in this situation.  The strike can be over a mile away,
> but damage the drivers, and take them out.

I have one of the early 756 Pros that I purchased new. It 
http://www.rogerhalstead.com/ham_files/boat4.htm  was connected to the 
antennas, http://www.rogerhalstead.com/ham_files/Tower29.htm  24 X 7, 
rain or shine.  Because of all the equipment and connections it was very 
difficult to disconnect.  If I heard a storm coming, it'd be past by the 
time I finished disconnecting things so it was basically connected to 
that antennas shown for about 6 years (give or take)
During that time I and my neighbors visually verified 17 direct strikes 
to the tower with no damage to any of the equipment.  It does have a 
rather elaborate ground system that consists of 33, 8' ground rods 
CadWelded(TM) to over 600 feet of bare #2 copper.  All coax shields are 
grounded at the top and bottom of the 100' tower as well as where they 
enter the house. Where they enter the house they also pass through solid 
state lightning arrestors.  From the tower to house is in underground 
conduit.  BTW there hasn't even been a close strike in the past 3 
summers.  Who knows what #4 will bring? I do know after those first 6 
years I was getting a bit nervous about this location.

One nearby strike missed the tower, hit the power transformer about a 
100 feet to the North of the one that feeds us, my shop, and the 
neighbor across the road.  It also hit a  30 to 40 foot pine tree across 
the road leaving about an 8 foot stump. The largest piece of the tree 
outside the stump was about 3 to 4 feet long. It was buried about 2 1/2 
feet straight into the neighbors yard.  BTW I was on the air at the time 
with no idea the storm was that close.  The neighbor to the North lost 
almost all major appliances, the TV and their well.

I've had to replace one arrestor and one double female N connector over 
the last 10 years. Photo #4 from the top in
  http://www.rogerhalstead.com/ham_files/cablebox.htm shows an earlier 
version of the entrance.  This page includes the conduit runs to the 
tower from both the house and shop.  The LMR-400 has been replaced with 
LMR-600.  There's a 6-pack at the base of the tower for SO2R operation.  
Both the shop and the house have 160 through 440 operation with the 
legal limit on HF.

73

Roger (K8RI)