Tremolat

Happy New Year to all,

Very interesting topic. My KiwiSDR #2 is in a region of France where thunderstorms are frequent (Périgord, Dordogne valley, Nouvelle Aquitaine). And the antenna is vertical, 11 meters, isolated from the ground (radiating pylon)... I placed a 0.5 A fast fuse at the bottom of the antenna. The electrostatic charge is so strong, that I often find it blown! Fortunately, I have several high-performance surge protectors of different types, two at the bottom of the antenna, two others at the arrival of the 250 meter long coaxial cable. There is also a first Unun transformer at the start, and a second at the arrival.

When the long coaxial cable arrived, just before the RF amplifier, I built myself a protection box which contains: a discharge coil, a 0.5 A fast fuse, protection diodes PR1007G in parallel, a serially wired robust capacity. The PR1007G diodes can handle peak currents of 30 A (Non-Repetitive Peak Forward Surge Current 8.3 ms). Their capacitance is 8 pF. It's simple and effective. Here is the picture :

For further information, the description of the installation : http://labroue.autreradioautreculture.com/Courdilles/KiwiSDR/Documents/Description_KiwiSDR_Tremolat.pdf

We have another phenomenon in our area : les Farfadets. It's visually stunning. Nicolas Escurat photographs them :

Farfadets : https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18QBqRmqLb/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Best regards, Philippe