While the Patio Door Coax Cable Feedthrough was a success it had a few drawbacks. The main and deciding one being that for winter the board still had gabs where the cold Iowa winter would come into the home. A more permanent solution was needed, a hole in the wall.
The entry panel boxes by KF7P Metalwerks are nice high quality steel boxes for a fair price. I got the 14x17 inch 16 gauge steel box for $226 in 2018. Chris custom makes them and can adjust them to your need. You even get to pick the paint.
Along with the box I got a set of grommets, grommet cable seal, plugs, the 2" PVC conduit kit, aluminum-to-copper connection grease for the arrestors, copper-to-copper grease and ground rod clamps for the ground bonding part below.
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Keep in mind that I'm no expert here. I tried to do a lot of comparison and analyzation of what's best for my need. Ultimately I just made some guesses on random attributes and options. Looking at various arrestors I became convinced that just a gas discharge tube would be good. Some PolyPhaser arrestors use a DC blocking capacitor in line with the center conductor. Another design added a discharge inductor on the antenna side and a drain resistor on the radio side of the arrestor. Industrial Communication Engineer (I.C.E.) used to sell these until the proprietor died. Today Array Solutions and Morgan Systems/KF7P Metalwerks sell variations of that design. The Morgan arrestor seem to follow closely the design while Array Solutions advertises with an improved design. Array Solutions also publishes impressive looking graphs of their arrestors but unfortunately the images are to small to be legible and to be of any use.
I bought the Array Solutions AS-303 arrestor first but didn't install it until I purchased the second arrestor. I had a hard time deciding on which one to purchase. Morgan Systems made it even harder with their M-300 and M-301 that seem nearly identical. Chris (KF7P) suggested the M-300. I went with the M-300 not only because it was a little cheaper but also to satisfy my curiosity on what the difference is.
Size wise both arrestors are fairly equal. The housing of both manufacturers seem to be well build and quality work. In both cases the material of choice is aluminium with stainless steel hardware. The assembly of the Morgan arrestors has more loose parts when taken apart than the Array Solutions arrestor. I like how the Array Solutions uses threaded spacers but having a mounting flange on only one side means that not the full back of the arrestor is snugly against the ground plate in my entry panel. The Morgan arrestor housing with to flanges is nicer for such an installation. Both arrestor have attachment points for grounding. Array Solutions has one screw on top while Morgan has one on each side (two in total). With my installation the screws are somewhat annoying.
Inside the arrestors use quite similar components. One noticeable difference is the added capacitor on the radio side to ground in the Array Solutions arrestor.
The values of the components are different between the arrestors as well. Unfortunately I'm unable to comment what effect this has and as of now I haven't used these arrestors enough to determine a difference. I probably have a hard time again deciding on which arrestor to get when I purchase the next one.
