No one can guarantee it will stop all strikes, but it can help and will
never hurt. In my 30 years as maintenance electrical supervisor at a major
university in Missouri I learned that lightening does as it pleases we just
try to do what we can to minimize damage.
Ron
----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2011 4:24 PM
Subject: [Bulk] Surge Protector For Breaker Box
> I've never known if they helped or not but I had the money recently, so =
> I bought a breaker box surge protector for 128. This one is made by G E =
> and was made for the box I have. It makes me feel better but I don't =
> know if it will help protect the house or not. This week Denver has had =
> some horribly powerful thunderstorms dropping down into the valley of =
> Denver off the mountains with lots and lots of cloud to ground strikes =
> and some very close. We lost power for 4 hours and that never goes that =
> long. 24,000 Denver customers were without power for hours and the next =
> day, still 5,000 customers were off the grid. I took a direct lightning =
> strike many years ago when I had two towers. The 65 foot tower had a 26 =
> foot vertical on top of it and in mid August, of all things, we had the =
> worst dry lightning storm I've ever witnessed. I took a direct hit on =
> the vertical. It blew the top three feet off the antenna. All antennas =
> were grounded but I was leaning up against my metal office desk and just =
> three feet from my coax switch that had all antennas switched to a =
> direct ground. It had the common unplugged from the switch , too, so no =
> equipment was directly connected. It flashed over three feet from me =
> and as I said, the desk was metal. My ears rang for an hour. Bulbs =
> popped in the house, some diodes popped in my Ten Tec, a phone burned =
> out, and every single breaker in my box tripped off. I actually said to =
> a friend standing in the room, "Am I still alive?" So this week, with =
> all the afternoon storms, I've felt like maybe I was a little more =
> protected. G E had, for my box, a 34 dollar surge protector, but =
> logically, I figured the more expensive one was better. Typical ham.
>
> Phil.
> K0NX
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