Well, growing up in "tornado alley" and then living in the real "tornado
capitol of the world," I have had a LOT of experience with nature's sparks.
Maybe I'm paranoid but I don't like to lose equipment to lightning.
Old Hardman told me sometime around 1949 that all lightning wants to do is go
to ground. Anything that gets in the way of lightning going to ground will be
destroyed. Anything that can be done to expedite the process will reduce the
severity of lightning damage. So I help the big sparks go to ground every way I
can.
Most lightning damage is caused by power line surges - and there's no
substitute for redundant surge protectors. The power company sells a "whole
house surge protector" that is absolutely priceless when lightning hits the
power line. If you want to do it yourself, most electrical supply houses will
sell you all you can pay for. BUT - that is not enough.
I use smaller high joule surge limiter/protectors on EVERY piece of equipment
that is worth more than cost of the surge limiter. The computers; both here and
at my business, have Brick Wall (brand) surge limiters, and at my business the
sales computers have a Sola voltage regulator feeding sine wave UPS's into a
surge limiter for each server and each workstation.
In almost twenty years here, I have two clock radios damaged by line surges.
Total damage - less than twenty bucks, and that is less than the cost of two
Radio Shack plug in surge limiters. At the shop, I lose an Ethernet card or two
a year to lightning induced voltage surges on the cabling. I have been buying
the cards in bulk, and keep spare workstations for the sales people. The next
cycle of computer replacements I may go wireless.
Here in the shack; I took advice from the local two way guys and drilled a hole
from the center of the tower base hole to water. Forty feet of oil well drill
stem (6 inch pipe with half inch wall) down the hole provides a heavy duty
ground rod for the tower installation. A flat plate welded to the top of the
ground provides a solid ground connection. A piece of 00 copper to each tower
leg grounds the tower. An ICE coax grounding block on the plate grounds the
coax shields. ICE and Polyphaser arrestors in each coax line mounted on a 4" X
1" piece of stainless flat bar help keep the sparks out of the shack.
This setup has been up since New Years of 1990. The tower gets hit once or
twice a year - and I replaced the lightning arrestors as a precaution last
year. Total rig/rotor/accessory damage to date - $0.00. Nothing. De Nada. And
yes I do operate during thunderstorms and no I do not disconnect anything for
lighting or anything else.
Now, every man to his own taste as the good man said as kissed the pig. These
setups work for me. They are fairly elaborate but not overly costly considering
the cost of replacing equipment.
73 Pete Allen AC5E
--
Never squat with your spurs on
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