FINALLY!!! A guy who knows what he is talking about!! Good job Dave!
My towers, TV ants, trees etc etc etc etc etc have been HIT MANY times. I
have drawn the same conclusion, ie lightning hits anywhere it pleases!
After 30 years with the Telephone CO. I could almost write a book about
"odd" lightning strikes, such as the time it hit a floor joist and
splintered its way to the basement window. Then exploded the window and
snaked along the ground.
73, Mick W4YV
----------
> From: dave@egh.com
> To: towertalk@contesting.com
> Subject: [TowerTalk] More comments on lightning - second hand from an
expert
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
> Date: Wednesday, June 03, 1998 12:07 PM
>
> Hi,
>
> A number of years ago, I attended a lightning demonstration at
> the Boston Museum of Science. During this demonstration, the lecturer
> was inside a steel cage while lightning bolts were created by a Van de
Graf
> (sp?) generator. The bolts were very bright, and the noise was so loud
> that I wished I had brought earplugs with me. (Only a little louder than
> the bolt which was unleashed directly over my house last night and which
> woke me out of a dead sleep.)
>
> After the lecture, I had the chance to talk to him personally. I
> had recently put up a 100 foot tower which was the tallest object for
many
> miles. (It was so high in reference to the rest of the local geography
> that from its top I could see more than 30 water towers, and also on a
clear
> day I could see the tops of the power lines going over the Cape Cod
canal,
> which I presume to be on the order of 15 miles distance from my QTH. I
asked
> him why I had not received any lightning hits. He said that lightning
does
> not automatically hit the highest item in the area. When a bolt
discharges,
> he said it heads toward ground and will only deviate about 20 to 30 feet
in
> any direction. Thus it would be theoretically possible for a lightning
bolt
> to directly hit the ground 50 feet from my 100 foot high tower if the
land
> was cleared all around it.
>
> My tallest tower is now only 85 feet tall, yet I have had towers
> above tree level for almost 15 years and have yet to experience a
lightning
> hit. The towers are grounded, yet I am not sure how good the ground is
at
> this point in time. To what do I attribute my lightning-free experience?
> Only Divine providence. However, the moral of the story is that you
should
> not expect to be safe from lightning strikes simply because there are
taller
> objects nearby than your tower.
>
> 73, Dave Clemons K1VUT
>
>
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