@phobos_dthorga
Yea :(

@freemo Awwr, I'm sorry to hear that :(

I've been told by quite a few hams actually, that lightning arrestors ​ are not worth it, and possibly even harmful in some cases.

What is your opinion on them, after this event? And if I may ask, what brand/model did you use?

@phobos_dthorga Its hard to say. I cant see how the design would be harmful but at the same time It only seems it would help so much. a fairly direct strike and I dont see how an arrestor could help.

My brand was MFJ but judging by the scorching it wasnt the arrestors fault it likely actually helped way more than no arrestor would have.

@freemo Mighty Fine Junk, according to some people :) I've never had an issue with them myself though, but then again, I've only been an amateur for 1.5 years so far.

I might get my arrester installed then when the COVID-19 situation blows over finally. I'm disabled and unable to climb up onto the roof myself, thus need the help of a local friend.

@phobos_dthorga The MFJ being "junk" has some validity.. they dont do very complex electronics well.. their stuff is simple but works within that context...

Take their antenna analyzer for example. It works well enough to get an idea of where your antenna will tune.. But it uses a cheap old school LCD and the oscillator doesnt create a very clean signal.. but it will do the job.

But other things that rely purely on the quality of the parts and not so much the complexity of the design work just fine.. MFJ is fine for things like manual tuners or lightening arrestors where there is really no way to mess those things up in terms of circuit schematic complexity.

@freemo Wow, I honestly cannot thank you enough for that enlightening run down of MFJ along with their positives and negatives!

That's a very honest portrait you've given of them beyond the typical, "they make junk so therefore you should avoid them, and I ain't giving no other reason than that".

I feel like I should probe your mind for other factoids relating to amateur radio, as I could gain quite a bit being only rather new to this hobby. I've had my license for 1.5 years so far (not sure if that was already established).

Do you have any "go to" resources that you would be happy to recommend?

Thanks!

@phobos_dthorga Sadly I dont have too many go to resources aside from a few band plan images or what have you.. I am an electrical engineer so I learned about this stuff more from the aspect of building electronics than anything specific to Ham Radio.

With that said I am often disapointed at the lack of information or the quantity of disinformation in the Ham Radio arena. There seem to be "facts" that almost every ham radio operator "knows" that isnt even remotely true (and easily disproven with a little bit of math or circuit analysis).

The only resource I can think to share is a book I started writing on circuit analysis and never finished. But it may be useful because all the examples I have written in the book so far, each one building on the last, is ultimately specific to Ham radio with the last example being a full transmission system including feedline, balun, and antenna.

http://jeffreyfreeman.me/frequency-domain-circuit-analysis-tutorial/