Sorry, but Jerry has a lot to worry about from a direct or partial direct
lightning hit on his installation. In my direct experience with a hit on
my station, if you have a spark gap of less than three feet, your rig is
in danger. The gap in relays and in "grounding" coax switches is just
peanuts to a real lightning bolt. The bolt goes thru those little gaps
like they were direct connect. You absolutely must disconnect and
remove the antenna, ground, and AC wires from the immediate area of the
incoming lines (all ant., gnd., and AC incoming). I use two banana
plugs/sockets to unfasten my ladder line from the window patch panel
termination point.
Also, directly grounding all downcoming antenna feedlines provides more
of a danger for a strike than leaving them totally unterminated (leave
them floating!). The build-up of a charge in the earth and sky more
likely will not follow your feedlines in their discharging activities
(lightning strike) if the feedlines are not connected to ground.
73, K4VUD, Charlie
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