Surge Suppression
The most important part of grounding any site is placing a surge suppressor or lightning protector on the coax right after the coax enters the shelter. As the grounding kit takes surge energy off the coax's outer conductor, the surge arrestor takes energy off the center conductor. Surge suppressors are installed between the connections of two cables (i.e. between a jumper and a coax run) and come in a variety of types to fit RF connectors. Surge suppressors are rated for specific frequency ranges and will block and then dissipate an RF signal outside of those ranges. However, not all energy can be blocked because the pulse reaches the suppressor at different times and gets through before the differential voltage can be equalized. The energy that gets through the suppressor is called the Throughput Energy. The goal is to pick the model with the lowest throughput for your desired frequency range and power level.
Lightning protectors can be either flange or bulkhead mounted. While flange can be mounted to a ground bar or single-point ground panel in certain applications, bulkhead mounting is the recommended mounting method.
RF and Coaxial Surge Protection Products
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