Surge Protector

If you have any kind of coaxial service coming into your home, be it satellite, cable or Internet service, you are at risk from surges damaging equipment in your home. These lines, without a surge protector, provide the easiest way into your home and cause the most damage to electronic equipment plugged into them. Risks of surge damage include lightning strikes (while rare, they do happen and the result is always catastrophic), static electricity discharges, called flashover, that cause the surge to jump to your coax connection. This is often caused by the sudden start of appliances that use a large amount of energy to turn them on. You can reduce your risk by installing satellite TV surge protectors to all coaxial lines coming into your house.

Most satellite services use a coaxial F connector for television signals that run through a RG6 cable. If you’re experienced with cable lines, the F connector is the part that screws into your television and has the metal conductor wire in the center of it. An outer plastic jacket that protects the line from external elements shields the conductor. The line, if properly installed, is grounded where the service comes into the home and joins the satellite surge protector at the television. This ground block ties into the homes main ground which helps ward off external surges. You still need a surge protector for satellite coaxial lines “inside” the house though. This installs between the coax cable and your connection.

There are two basic types of satellite TV surge protector. One that uses gas discharge tubes and a solid-state model. Which is the best to use? It depends on how you connect to your satellite service. The gas tube surge protector, like the Citel satellite feed surge protectors, connects at the incoming line and is a small device that looks like an adapter. The solid-state surge protector uses semiconductors to divert surges. There’s no difference in the quality of protection.

Another satellite coaxial surge suppressor is the type that is a basic surge strip with coaxial connections added for multiple use protection. A good example of this would be a Belkin satellite surge protection device called the PureAV Isolator. This would fit under the category of home theater surge protection and while it does offer protection, you have to make certain that your lines are grounded or you will be providing an easy in for stray surges. This is because the surge will be blocked by the outlet protection and will redirect to the unprotected coaxial cable line.

All of these devices can protect your coaxial connections as long as you check the specifications prior to installing any of them. You also want to get a service that offers the most bandwidth possible. This will give you a cleaner signal and makes it easier for satellite TV surge protectors to do their job.

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