{"id":44807,"date":"2017-12-04T12:51:53","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T10:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/?p=44807"},"modified":"2023-09-26T15:10:11","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T13:10:11","slug":"antennas-remote-lightning-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/diy\/antennas-remote-lightning-protection\/","title":{"rendered":"Antennas Remote Lightning Protection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/133917999\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/133917999\">Amateur Radio Antenna Remote Disconnect for Lightning Protection<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/user42146839\">alk<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\">Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Video by Art K4FWJ<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A single lightning strike can destroy thousands of dollars worth of radio equipment. Experienced amateur radio operators know the only sure protection is complete disconnection. This can be a chore, especially when multiple antennas are involved. As well, it is all-to-easy to forget to do it. This system makes it possible to accomplish hands-off multiple antenna disconnects and re-connects either on-site or remotely. It also provides for antenna rotator connect\/disconnect. The on-site mode can be wired to automatically connect antennas when the radio equipment is turned on and disconnect them when the radio is turned off. The remote mode requires a web IP switch which is controlled by a PC or smartphone. The result is excellent lightning protection at any time from any place.<\/p>\n<p><em>K4FWJ<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Here&#8217;s more detail of the particular installation shown in this thread: The Polyphasers aren&#8217;t strictly necessary but in my case they were already in place. Plus, since they are well grounded, using them probably adds protection from a major strike that might arc over to the other side. Lastly, the SO-259 side needs to be very securely mounted to prevent any movement. The Polyphasers provide for that.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Polyhasers were, by far, the most expensive item. Technical Distributors, Inc. sells them to Hams for $62.84 delivered.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The next most expensive item is the 6&#8243; stroke 12V linear actuator which cost $46.95 on eBay, delivered.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The 12VDC power supply for the actuator cost $12.83 on eBay, delivered.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Drawer slides found at Lowe&#8217;s, Home Depot, etc., were excessively long. I found a pair 10&#8243; slides on Amazon for $13.04, delivered.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It was very important to pay strict attention to the fixed position of the Polyphaser SO-259 centers. To that end a strong but thin plywood base plate was needed. Reason for that: relative to the SO-259 centers, the drawer slide thickness &#8220;lifts&#8221; the base plate and creates a substantial mismatch. To solve that problem a thin, 3\/16&#8243; X 12&#8243; X 12&#8243; piece of 4-ply aircraft grade plywood was used. Source: Sig Manufacturing website &#8211; $12.63 delivered.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The push-on PL-259 adapters were bought on eBay from W5SWL for $15.51 delivered for the four used.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The 1\/8&#8243; thick by 1-1\/2&#8243; wide aluminum angle can be bought in various lengths from a hardware store.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">To make the thing able to be worked remotely an IP power switch is required. Remoterig makes one but I already had another version (IP-9258) so I used it. Also is used a small DPDT 12V relay. When energized by the station&#8217;s main 12V supply the relay sends correct 12V polarity to the actuator to make the coax and rotator cable connections. With a smartphone and IP Power&#8217;s free software, the IP switch is used to turn on the following: Alinco 12V 32A main power supply (which signals the small relay to send actuator power and connect coax), 12V standby power to an RF amplifier, 12V power to an RS-232 conversion PCB (from DF9GR) installed in a HAM-IV control box (the 110vac for the box is provided by the IP switch), 12V power to a flourescent lamp directly above the operating position. Even at home those things are turned on with my phone. Then a K3 is manually turned on with its&#8217; front panel on\/off button. When operating remotely the K3 gets turned on with a K3\/0-mini which is connected to the RRC-1258 box. Also for remote operation is installed in a laptop running Win7 the following software: DXlab suite for logging, spots, etc, YO3DMU&#8217;s &#8220;PstRotatorAz&#8221; for the beam position, and SPE&#8217;s &#8220;Term_2K_232.exe&#8221; for amplifier control.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A Lantronix EDS2100 2-port server is needed to assist communication between PstRotatorAz and Term_2K_232.exe and their respective hardware (rotator\/RF amp). EDS2100s are rather pricey. Found the one on eBay for $209.58, delivered.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Finally, before leaving home a webcam is placed in front of a P3 panadapter. A corresponding app on a smartphone relays band condition information surprisingly well.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>Source: Art (K4FWJ)<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>P.S.<\/strong> Similar Project by SM3JGG &#8211; <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/site\/sm3jggwebcac\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Link<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amateur Radio Antenna Remote Disconnect for Lightning Protection from alk on Vimeo. Video by Art K4FWJ A single lightning strike can destroy thousands of dollars worth of radio equipment. Experienced amateur radio operators know the only sure protection is complete disconnection. This can be a chore, especially when multiple antennas are involved. As well, it&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44808,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[190,194,203,234],"class_list":["post-44807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diy","tag-ham","tag-ham_radio","tag-hamradio","tag-info","category-2","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cqdx.ru\/ham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}