Gas Discharge Tube Surge Arrestor

This Slim Line Surge Arrestor is designed with high pressure contacts, premium plating, and are compensated to offer the best possible IMD performance. The functionality of surge arrestors can be readily evaluated by using ordinary RF field test equipment. If there is no degradation of the VSWR or insertion loss of the arrestor, then the surge arrestor is reassuringly functioning as a transient lightning protection device. VSWR and insertion loss measurements can be made by using vector or scalar network analyzers as well as a variety of other readily available field test equipment. No other maintenance is required. As obvious as it may seem, surge arrestors should never be installed or tested when a storm is occurring or approaching.

Design and construction:

This gas tube surge arrestor is broadband RF devices that are capable of allowing a dc bias to pass along the center conductor, while shunting the lower frequencies associated with lightning induced transients to ground. This device is to be installed in series of a RF Coaxial cable (between antenna and coaxial cable). This gas tube surge arrestor contain a field-replaceable gas tube element. Under normal operating conditions, this gas tube element functions as a simple capacitor with a shunt capacitance of less than 1 picofarad. In the presence of a lightning-type transient, the gas within the element ionizes and switches the gas tube to a low impedance state. In this low impedance state, the gas tube passes any lightning surge current present on the center conductor to ground. Gas tube elements can divert lightning surge currents reaching a peak of 10 kA to ground without causing any degradation to the element.