Just a note to say thanks to the folks at Flex. My 5000 got knocked off the air after a thunderstorm a
couple months ago. Last month I sent it to Flex and they repaired it in a couple days and returned it. I put it on the air and it worked like a champ. Two days later another storm took it out again. I've never had any radio gear fail from lightening in the past, but I've never had an antenna system like the one I have now. Late last October I installed a 120 foot tower with a SteppIr Monster and 160M vee at the top. I also have a 350 foot beverage a few feet above the ground. Also, I monitor my TX with a digital scope through a coupler after the amplifier. The cool thing is that it captured the induced signal from the lightening storm. The scope is set in single trigger and the level corresponds to 1200 watts into 50 ohms. The indicated power level from the lightening was 1562 watts into the receiver!!!! It killed k1, a 56 cent part. Tonight I decided to replace the part. I had just opened the cabinet when my emailed dinged. It was a message from Flex announcing availability of the service manual. How timely, it sure made things easier!!! The 5K is back on the air and working fine. From now on, the radio will be connected to a dummy load when not in use. Oh yea, I have another nine spare K1s. Thanks Again, John k2ox _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/