The magnetic field disturbance that accompanies such events can cause problems with systems that have hundreds of miles of wire strung on poles (e.g. power transmission and telephone lines), but, AFAIK, it takes a huge "antenna" like that to threaten terrestrial gear.
Huge CME's with corresponding magnetic storms have apparently been pretty destructive, but extremely rare: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2003/23oct_superstorm/ I feel comfortable with the same protection as I normally use for lightning - disconnected/grounded antennas. A further protection might be a double-pole mains switch that disconnects both sides of the mains supply from the station power supplies. That's also good in lightning-prone areas. I know some satellites have been disrupted - even damaged - by magnetic storms. I wondered if the effects of such magnetic disturbances was really considered in their design or whether the engineers building the early satellites assumed that there would not be any major sources of energy in orbit that required protection? Keep in mind that many of our satellites are in geosynchronous orbit roughly 22,000 miles above mean sea level. I believe that puts them outside much of the protective natural magnetic field around the earth that helps deflect such energy toward the magnetic poles where it produces dramatic aurora. Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- I know there are a lot of very smart people on this reflector and centuries of expertise and knowledge. So, that is why I have come here to this "august" body of technical experts.... CME or Coronal Mass Ejection. I know that these can happen very easily and now that the sun has become more active, I wonder what one can do to protect their electronics from harm during one of these events. I know the VHF guys would like to see these things ... but I have read that these things can cause havoc to electronics. So...how does one protect their K3/K2 etc from such and event? I know in the late 1800's there was a very strong CME and that hit the Earth which cause aurora down to Cuba and burnt up telegraph lines (I think those were #12 or #10 copper lines too). That was a very LARGE CME. Any sage words from the corporate brains on this list? Lee - K0WA ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
