Bullet with lightning suppressor

[rconaway]

If a Bullet costs $40 and a lightning arrestor costs $40, why bother with the lightning arrestor?

[WHT]

With an arrester, you'll prevent (or limit or reduce) the surge from going through the Bullet (as if you really care to loose $40) and from going on down the CAT5 cable into the rest of your gear.

[rconaway]

The rest of my gear is a $40 switch Either the bullet, the 70 feet of cable, or the Linksys hub has to act as a fuse. However, your point is understood. I might throw a few on the live radios.

[WHT]

Some hams will make a choke out of their down lead coax. As best I recall, it was like six turns of coax with minimum bending radius and each loop separated by a distance equal to the minimum bending radius. Likewise I've seen guys tie six knots in the extension cord or power cable.

But along the line you were saying...It don't make sense to spend $5,000 for a tower grounding system to protect a $200 radio.

[jimmy870]

Actually the purpose of a lightning arrestor is dependability. I have a repeater station on a hill that's a heart attack away to reach. A bullet may cost 40$ but I'd spend anything to protect that 40$ bullet (and keep me from climbing that hill). Let's not forget, it's worse to have to replace your equipment after every electrical storm. 40$+40$+40$+40$+40$ ... starts to addup.

[rconaway]

And how do you protect an NS2 that has the antenna directly connected to the radioboard? It's not about protecting the bullet, it's about protecting the equipment downstream. In my case, that equipment is pretty cheap and at ground level. I have other installations out there and the only radio that ever failed was a Terabridge and that was completely grounded.

[jimmy870]

I wouldn't use a ns2 on a mountain top to begin with. I use the device as a repeater so there is nothing downstream. Non of my ground level devices have any problem but god hates the one I have high up.

[rconaway]

It's actually on a tower. That is why I have 2 of them on there, one for primary and one for backup.

[jimmy870]

I have considered placing 2 units for backup but what's to keep them both from getting damaged? In any case, it is a problem when continued stable service is required from a hard to reach place.

[rconaway]

The second unit isn't powered up. However, I have had a live NS5 them on a building that is almost as high as my tower with no separate grounding for 2 months and haven't had an issue yet. I have 20 or so on houses for several months and have yet to lose one.

[jimmy870]

Having a unit that's not powered up is no help to me (I would have to do the climb to power it up). I have a number of devices spread all over the place with no problems and no protection but I have lost 3 devices on the mountain top inside two weeks.

[rconaway]

In our case, if the primary radio fails, our software tells the IP power switch to turn on the second unit automatically in a few minutes after attemptimg to power cycle it.

[jimmy870]

As for using an IP power switch remotely is not possible since my only access to the site is through the wireless. Now, if the power switch is programmable to responed to a lack of ping returns (when there are no pings returned from one device it switches on the next) would suit me.

[rconaway]

The software in the switch will power cycle the device automatically. It currently won't turn one off and the other one. We wrote software for a windows computer that will attempt to power cycle the radio a chosen number of times. If it doesnt' connect after that, it will power that radio down and then power up another radio. However, it does require a windows computer.

[jimmy870]

I suspected as much. A computer is just one more thing to go wrong. Someone once said "the more complex you make the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain". Let's just hope the measures I have taken will prove to be enough (already survived through a strike that powered down the whole site).
Incidentally, thanks for all the feedback.

[rconaway]

You can also write this in firmware on the DLI switch. We talked to the programmer and he was pretty backed up a few months ago. YOu can also do it yourself if you like.