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Whats this coax in a fruit jar stuff?
- Thread starter Cat Driver
- Start date
Maybe on the other end at the base of the tower.I read in another forum about sticking the radio end of the coax in a fruit jar when there is a thunderstorm near. :shock:
I never heard of such silly crap.
If lightning will travel a mile through air it'll surely travel 6 or 8 inches out of a glass jar. :idea:
Ronnie
I would think you should disconnect the coax at a coupling at the base of the tower so there is no path into the ham shack.
Shadetree Mechanic
Delaware Base Station 808
Here are some white papers from PolyPhaser. Lots to know, lots to read. I would like to print them out and put them in a 3 ring binder.
https://www.polyphaser.com/resources/white-papers
https://www.polyphaser.com/resources/white-papers
Maybe on the other end at the base of the tower.
Are you using an antenna rotator?
I just picked up a used 30ft tower with a Hygain super penetrator on top today for 200 clams. I dont know just how I want it yet. I will get ideas here. I dont have a radio yet either, must be hundreds to chose from. I am in no hurry yet. A big hole has to be dug the base.
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Thats a BOMB waiting to go off. STUPID is as STUPID does.VERY BBBBBBBAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDD IDEA.............
I just picked up a used 30ft tower with a Hygain super penetrator on top today for 200 clams. I dont know just how I want it yet. I will get ideas here. I dont have a radio yet either, must be hundreds to chose from. I am in no hurry yet. A big hole has to be dug the base.
‘Twas meant to be. Hope I run into that deal at the right time.
Hundreds of radios? Naw, hundreds of dollars for a radio.
Or, $140 for a 980 Uniden.
I wouldn’t focus on the radio so much as the install.
What if,
“You’re the grand prize winner today” ?
The radio of one’s dreams (okay, THAT, week)?
Be something to have many bugs already gone from waiting tower and Shack.
.
Well I did have to take it down though.
How I found it I was welding on a highway bridge in the middle of nowhere and this abandoned house with a tower was a block away. I found the owner and he said I could have it for 200. So I asked the foreman on the job if I could borrow the Genie
this weekend to take the antennas off the tower and he said I dont care. So on a sunday morning I took off the 4 antennas and lowered the tower down with the lift.
Here is a pic of the antennas and a pic of a lift like I used. The top antenna is a hygain penatrator and the other 3 I dont know what they are.
Attachments
Oh just tie off the cable to the gas meter.
I'm just going to throw this in there because of many things this seems to bring up, Hilarious or not, it can be serious enough to require attention, that many either didn't know about, or forgot, or had just a plain false memory somewhere...this is a LEGACY post, dealing with a protection problem many mis-interpret.
It Deals with this series of posts.. mostly dealing with a radio and conversions but it touches on the issue with the "Front End" protection.
NOT a lot of people were aware of to look into getting fixed nor even aware of TSB's and free warranty work for those that owned a model that was not pre-production corrected...
I've seen a few "dead RX" radios come across my desk enough to know that the "urban Myth" this seems to be has some basis of fact.
Not sure if many out here even remember the days when you put your station to bed, it meant also taking out the coax and putting it in a glass jar. Many CB'ers used LONG runs of coax to get to the antenna but never made a breakpoint to even disconnect from the inside, or outside the home - they just kept it connected.
Well that is their choice and some survive to this day, but others weren't so fortunate and lost either the home or the radio to the "Static" build up you can get on dry windy days as the wind blows by and strums the antenna into generating a considerable poke of static electricity - this can also damage the front end of that radio.
Thunderstorms passing close but not within a "watch" or "Warn" area - many just disconnected the coax to prevent the radio from getting damaged or worse, having the radio and its' power supply connected along with the antenna - many felt the danger of lightning and power surges from it -warranted concerns - since it may have been too dangerous to take down the antenna in the storm - wait it out and pray was their norm.
To this day, Uniden and Cobra still make radios with Positive and Negative ground ignition polarity protection wiring and HI-POT static bleed down resistors for this reason. You can travel along, drive thru regions of differing air masses and hear this effect and if you have a simple basic antenna like a Firestik or Francis or even the 102" whip - they are isolated at the feed point from each conductor - meaning the shield goes to ground, the whip in the air - nothing in-between - sort of thing.
Realize the fact that as you travel you're moving a vehicle thru air, and if that air is dry generates static charges or are around a lot of electrical noise - those noises - their fields - can get inducted/induced into the antenna thru the coax and into the radio - posing a possible hazard to you if you are not careful.
Same applies to amps being used in these conditions of using no static suppression on the output of the amp or antenna jack at the radio - the RF spike can enter into and damage the radio in both RF final and Front End of the receiver. RF burns to someone's lips used to be considered a compliment to someone's ability to design a system to produce that kind of RF power - Popcorn Anyone?
So those "quench diodes" were used to rectify and the excessive currents - since a simple Pin diode can get "perforated" enough times by these excessive discharges to quit working - the simple back-to-back diode orientation protects the PIN and Front end - even from high mis-matched SWR problems a careless operator can create.
So there were MANY reasons for those that owned radios with the missing pieces of the puzzle to take to the notion of disconnecting the coax from the radio if they were not using it for some time - even if only for several hours waiting to storms to pass. The chances of getting struck by lightning were still the paramount problem, but even gentle static discharge, EMP from the closer lightning strikes and high-winds casing the blowing static - can do damage to the radios receiver.
The proof is in the TSB's Cobra sent out - read the thread to find it.
UL and CPSC - requiring DC grounded antennas along with Station Grounding procedures for Base station use - is another.
Ok - I said it...My history...
It Deals with this series of posts.. mostly dealing with a radio and conversions but it touches on the issue with the "Front End" protection.
NOT a lot of people were aware of to look into getting fixed nor even aware of TSB's and free warranty work for those that owned a model that was not pre-production corrected...
I've seen a few "dead RX" radios come across my desk enough to know that the "urban Myth" this seems to be has some basis of fact.
Not sure if many out here even remember the days when you put your station to bed, it meant also taking out the coax and putting it in a glass jar. Many CB'ers used LONG runs of coax to get to the antenna but never made a breakpoint to even disconnect from the inside, or outside the home - they just kept it connected.
Well that is their choice and some survive to this day, but others weren't so fortunate and lost either the home or the radio to the "Static" build up you can get on dry windy days as the wind blows by and strums the antenna into generating a considerable poke of static electricity - this can also damage the front end of that radio.
Thunderstorms passing close but not within a "watch" or "Warn" area - many just disconnected the coax to prevent the radio from getting damaged or worse, having the radio and its' power supply connected along with the antenna - many felt the danger of lightning and power surges from it -warranted concerns - since it may have been too dangerous to take down the antenna in the storm - wait it out and pray was their norm.
To this day, Uniden and Cobra still make radios with Positive and Negative ground ignition polarity protection wiring and HI-POT static bleed down resistors for this reason. You can travel along, drive thru regions of differing air masses and hear this effect and if you have a simple basic antenna like a Firestik or Francis or even the 102" whip - they are isolated at the feed point from each conductor - meaning the shield goes to ground, the whip in the air - nothing in-between - sort of thing.
Realize the fact that as you travel you're moving a vehicle thru air, and if that air is dry generates static charges or are around a lot of electrical noise - those noises - their fields - can get inducted/induced into the antenna thru the coax and into the radio - posing a possible hazard to you if you are not careful.
Same applies to amps being used in these conditions of using no static suppression on the output of the amp or antenna jack at the radio - the RF spike can enter into and damage the radio in both RF final and Front End of the receiver. RF burns to someone's lips used to be considered a compliment to someone's ability to design a system to produce that kind of RF power - Popcorn Anyone?
So those "quench diodes" were used to rectify and the excessive currents - since a simple Pin diode can get "perforated" enough times by these excessive discharges to quit working - the simple back-to-back diode orientation protects the PIN and Front end - even from high mis-matched SWR problems a careless operator can create.
So there were MANY reasons for those that owned radios with the missing pieces of the puzzle to take to the notion of disconnecting the coax from the radio if they were not using it for some time - even if only for several hours waiting to storms to pass. The chances of getting struck by lightning were still the paramount problem, but even gentle static discharge, EMP from the closer lightning strikes and high-winds casing the blowing static - can do damage to the radios receiver.
The proof is in the TSB's Cobra sent out - read the thread to find it.
UL and CPSC - requiring DC grounded antennas along with Station Grounding procedures for Base station use - is another.
Ok - I said it...My history...
Shadetree Mechanic
Delaware Base Station 808
A long piece of wire hung in the air and hooked to a model T ignition coil can charge a battery when the wind blows....
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