{"id":282,"date":"2026-07-14T10:45:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T16:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aa6kj.hopto.org\/wp\/?p=282"},"modified":"2026-09-01T15:10:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T21:10:59","slug":"lightning-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/aa6kj.hopto.org\/wp\/?p=282","title":{"rendered":"Lightning protection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Installed Morgan M-303<\/a> lightning protection to all coax cables:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It is not fully weatherproof so decided to install the first one inside the shack:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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with grounding outside the shack:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The other two units are outside and just in case I wrapped everything with electrical tape:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I always disconnect all cables during lightning stroms but this is just to protect against those random strikes…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One interesting feature of this unit is that it fully blocks DC. This is important during rain\/snow\/sleet precipitation when static electricity can develop at the antennas and appear at the coax cable. I experienced this last winter when my K4 suddenly started flashing overload!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: This unit can handle full legal power on 6m band unlike most other surge protectors (e.g., polyphaser).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update: If you have antenna that has elevated SWR (greater than 2), the DC block circuitry in the unit can heat up and cause gradual increase in SWR when using full power (1500W) on digital modes like FT8. There is a beefier unit in preparation, model 305, but that does not support 6m like the 303. It is possible to bypass the DC block in 303 to avoid this issue. Or even better, tune the antenna properly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Installed Morgan M-303 lightning protection to all coax cables: It is not fully weatherproof so decided to install the first one inside the shack: with grounding outside the shack: The other two units are outside and just in case I wrapped everything with electrical tape: I always disconnect all cables during lightning stroms but this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ham_radio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/aa6kj.hopto.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/aa6kj.hopto.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/aa6kj.hopto.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/aa6kj.hopto.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/aa6kj.hopto.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/aa6kj.hopto.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325,"href":"http:\/\/aa6kj.hopto.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions\/325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/aa6kj.hopto.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/aa6kj.hopto.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/aa6kj.hopto.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}