This is all good advice. For many of us lightning protection is a work
in progress but at least get the basics installed ASAP. If you have
big towers they will get hit. Stikes vary in intensity and can have
some interesting effects as noted in Bob's post. Give it the best path
to ground that you can afford. Be careful where your disconnects are,
I noticed burn marks on the wood near the protection/disconnect area
inside my previous home in Illinois when I disassembled the station.
I now keep all of that stuff outside in a huge Hoffman enclosure.
73,
John KK9A
Bob Shohet, KQ2M wrote
Stop a direct hit? No!
Make your appliance less likely to be damaged or destroyed? Yes!
There are no protection absolutes when it comes to lightning strikes.
All you can hope to do is make your valuables less inviting of a
target relative to other potential targets, and provide the shortest
low resistance paths to ground in an attempt to help divide up and
“control” the effects of that strike.
I too make sure to disconnect EVERYTHING in my shack when not in use
during the lightning months as well as when it appears that a T-storm
is on the way. Grounding alone is not enough at this qth. You must
disconnect everything INSIDE. That is no guaranty either but it does
afford an additional level of protection, the vast majority of the time.
I have had EMP’s from strikes on my towers that have been so powerful
that they have lit up my TV’s even though we had lost electrical
power, and 18 years ago actually caused a battery operated doll of my
daughter’s to start walking and talking! I have also lost a few
circuit boards inside one of my FT 1000MP’s and a 2 meter radio in
that same storm. Nothing was attached to either of those radios at
the time.
I have also had lightning come into the house through the phone lines,
cable lines and the well. One strike on my tower two years ago (when
everything was disconnected!) actually induced a big ZAPPP! in my the
radiator in the kitchen – and a nasty arc between the radiator and the
wall that gave off a burning smell. In the 21 years that I have had
my two towers up, and taken probably 10 or so direct and indirect
hits, that had not happened before or since. We are still not quite
sure how that happened since nothing else was affected.
Use all the lightning protection that you can and disconnect
everything when not in use!
73
Bob KQ2M
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