Parallel line lightning arrestors

[Mike B-12]

In a painfully slow, round-about way, I'm getting a Cebik 44' doublet
put up.  I'm curious if anyone is familiar with the ICE brand of
lightning arrestors
(http://www.arraysolutions.com/Products/ice/impulse1.html#2)?

I'm familiar with PolyPhaser products, too, but the ICE equipment sounds
well-built & good for the job, too.
--
73,
Mike Boice, KW1ND
Karns, TN
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[Ron D'Eau Claire-2]

I haven't used that "arrester" but looking at the specs I see that it's
designed for an impedance range of 300 to 600 ohms. That is, a typical open
wire line working at a low SWR. That is NOT the case with a "Cerbik"
doublet. Your Cerbik doublet will show impedances at various points along
the feeders way outside of that range on most bands - from a few ohms to
thousands of ohms.

The Cerbik doublet is just a center fed wire similar to what hams have been
using since the 1930's. The distinctive feature that Cerbik developed was to
limit the length to prevent the formation of a vertical radiation lobe on 10
meters. There's nothing critical about that antenna at all. I've used
variation most of my hamming "career" over the past half century. The Cerbik
42 foot length does exact a penalty of a couple of dB if you try to load it
on 80 meters. Center fed antennas lose efficiency very fast when the overall
radiator length drops below 1/4 wavelength (1/8 wavelength each side of the
feed point).

What the Cerbik antenna needs is a rig or good ATU capable of matching to
the very wide range of impedances it will present to the transmitter. The
Elecraft ATU's will do this in most cases. You may or may not use a balun.
That depends upon whether you care if the feeders radiate. Sometimes the
vertical radiation from an unbalanced feed line helps with DX if the antenna
isn't up at least 1/2 wavelength on the band you want to use for DX
contacts.

I'd be very suspicious of putting anything on the feedline for "protection"
that wasn't designed to deal with thousands of volts of RF (if you're
running more than QRP) or the impedance extremes such an antenna will
present to it.

The best lightening protection is to disconnect the feeders when there are
storms in the area and, if possible, have them disconnected outside of the
house. That's true of any kind of feedline.

Ron AC7AC

 

-----Original Message-----

In a painfully slow, round-about way, I'm getting a Cebik 44' doublet
put up.  I'm curious if anyone is familiar with the ICE brand of
lightning arrestors
(http://www.arraysolutions.com/Products/ice/impulse1.html#2)?

I'm familiar with PolyPhaser products, too, but the ICE equipment sounds
well-built & good for the job, too.
--
73,
Mike Boice, KW1ND
Karns, TN


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[Don Wilhelm-3]

Mike and all,

The Wireman www.thewireman.com lists both the ICE balanced line arrestor and
their CQ brand.  I have used the CQ brand for some time now - it is a simple
spark gap type (like the gap on a spark plug - in fact, this arrestor does
use 2 spark plugs).  You COULD build your own with spark plugs threaded into
a heavy grounded copper bar, but at $19.95 doing the metalwork involved may
not be worthwhile unless you have a home shop.

73,
Don W3FPR

----- Original Message -----

> In a painfully slow, round-about way, I'm getting a Cebik 44' doublet put
> up.  I'm curious if anyone is familiar with the ICE brand of lightning
> arrestors (http://www.arraysolutions.com/Products/ice/impulse1.html#2)?
>
> I'm familiar with PolyPhaser products, too, but the ICE equipment sounds
> well-built & good for the job, too.
> --


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[John Lonigro]

Mike:

I've had an ICE model 309 for just about 9 years now.  It's been outside
all that time and, other than the label getting faded, it looks as good
as new.  I have it attached to a 64 ft. doublet with ladder line and
have put up to 100 watts through it many times, but not since I finished
my K2 (hi).  I still disconnect all antennas from my rigs unless I'm
operating, but the ICE helps prevent static buildup, even when there are
no storms in the vicinity.  Don't know how well it would protect if I
ever had a direct hit, but you can say that about most lightning
suppressors.  I also don't know anything about the Cerbik doublet but I
am satisfied with my ICE lightning arrestor with my application.

John AA0VE

Mike B wrote:

> In a painfully slow, round-about way, I'm getting a Cebik 44' doublet
> put up.  I'm curious if anyone is familiar with the ICE brand of
> lightning arrestors
> (http://www.arraysolutions.com/Products/ice/impulse1.html#2)?
>
> I'm familiar with PolyPhaser products, too, but the ICE equipment
> sounds well-built & good for the job, too.

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[Don Wilhelm-3]

Folks,

I don't think LB would be happy with that extra 'r' in his name <G>.

For those interested in the 44 ft. doublet and its radiation patterns, go to
LBs website www.cebik.com - you will find a LOT of good information on
antennas there.  Also look at his article in the December issue of QST if
you are looking for an inexpensive 2 meter beam.

73,
Don W3FPR
----- Original Message -----

>  I also don't know anything about the Cerbik doublet ....
>


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[Mike B-12]

Thanks for the replies, fellas.  I had overlooked the impedance range of
the arrestor; LB's figures show 2, possibly 3 bands out of range of the
arrestor with his computer model.  With my luck, it would be more like 5
or 6 bands ;-)

I may instead go with a simpler spark plug model, just to bleed static,
and/or a knife switch.

Thanks for the feedback.  LB lives only a few miles from me, but I hate
to bug such a busy man.  It's so much easier to ask the list.

> In a painfully slow, round-about way, I'm getting a Cebik 44' doublet
> put up.  I'm curious if anyone is familiar with the ICE brand of
> lightning arrestors
> (http://www.arraysolutions.com/Products/ice/impulse1.html#2)?
>
> I'm familiar with PolyPhaser products, too, but the ICE equipment sounds
> well-built & good for the job, too.

--
73,
Mike Boice, KW1ND
Karns, TN
Behold the power of the penguin
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