In article ,
Jeff Liebermann wrote:

Masthead amps make good targets for lightning hits. I've seen a few
where every semiconductor in the amp was fried.

Yeah... probably need to consider them to be a potentially-sacrificial
component.

The really troublesome ones I've heard/read about, are the
cheapies... sometimes using just a single broadband transistor as a
gain element. Some of these have been known to break into
oscillation, for some reason (or no reason) and blast broadband noise
all over the place.

https://www.gpsworld.com/the-hunt-rf...nce%20in%20fog.

talks about one such case, in which several on-shipboard "active TV
antenna" systems were emitting enough RF crud to blank out GPS
reception in the harbor in Moss Landing, CA. Not a good thing to lose
your GPS when you're trying to come into a foggy harbor at night.

This is one reason why which buying a well-tested, professional-grade
mast-head amplifier would probably be a better idea than buying a
generic cheapie.