My antennas come in to one manual selector switch, which connects the selected antenna to a second selector switch, which then connects that to the desired rig. Both switches ground unselected inputs.
Since the K3 is switched to ANT1 when powered down, I keep my Cantenna connected to the ANT1 input and I use ANT2, which connects to that second selector switch. The K3 remembers that I like ANT2 when I power up, so that's no hassle. If I "accidentally" transmit into ANT1, there's a dummy load there. So I have some level of protection even if I forget to rotate both switches to ground or unused inputs when not operating. I usually do remember though, since I also lost my SWR / power measuring diodes to a nearby lightning strike, so I've got several levels of protection. I admit this isn't as good as disconnecting coax, but I'd never get on the air if I had to go through all of that every time I turned on the rig. Some guys disconnect everything and throw it outside, seal the rig in the original shipping carton, sacrifice a goat and pray a novena when thunder approaches, but I can't go that far. I think my next logical step would be to have the AC plug for my K3's power supply handy at desktop level so I can easily pull it when I'm going to be away from the rig for a while. This in response to what W8JI said about the mains connection being the primary path for damage. 73-Nick, WA5BDU .hank. wrote: > Chuck ..... > Like you, I have never had to disconnect any radios in the past from the > antenna - except during severe thunder storms. > About a year ago when the SWR SMT diodes went bad in my K3, I admitted to K3 > support that I did not remove the coax from the back of the K3 but I > grounded the Six Pak switch connections out in the garage. ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
