Falcon Wireless Tech Support - KF4HAZ wrote:

>Reminds me of an experience with an early network.
>Every time we had a thunderstorm we would loose at least on "Line Driver" or "Line Receiver" IC, after isolating which one, I would cut the pins from the DIP and desolder them one at a time, then solder in a socket and plug in a new IC
> (theory being it would be easier to replace next time)
>But we discovered that the ones in sockets never failed, once we got them all socketed we never had another one blow out no matter how bad the storm.
>  
>

<respectful snip>

I had the same experience. What we decided was that the socket added a 
tiny series resistance on all pins, that allowed the device to tolerate 
line spikes. Soldering is a very low resistance connection; sockets are 
considered medium resistance connections.

--Bob

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