If you bond your station to the very same ground that your antennas are
grounded to, you are inviting lightning right inside your house. It's
going to follow that #6 or #4 wire right to your equipment tearing up
everything in its path. Bonding all grounds right to your house ground
makes sense electrical, but when 100,000 volts at no telling what amps
hits that antenna or tower it is going to follow that ground wire right
through your house until it gets back to the house ground blowing up
everything in its path. GROUND GROUND GROUND your antennas, but no way
will I ever again have a station ground bonded to the same ground as the
ground rods of my antennas. Matter of fact, as I stated earlier, I have
no station ground. Disconnect coax OUTSIDE & you will not have to worry
about lightning coming in through antenna.
Now a broadcast station that is running 24/7 yes, massive grounding and
bonding everything even the metal building. But for ham radio operator
that knows better to operate in a thunderstorm, bonding and grounding to
keep his station on the air would cost more than all his radio & gear is
worth.
If your house is not wired correctly & lightning comes in then you are
in deep trouble with home owners insurance because it doesn't meet
code. My late father was a state electrical inspector & you wouldn't
believe some of the stuff he saw electricians try and pull in wiring homes.
Here is the article again about station grounding.
http://www.eham.net/articles/21383
As far as insurance, all my equipment is on a separate policy wrote for
ham radio. Home owners insurance are sometimes not friendly with ham
radio equipment because they don't understand it. They see a radio &
think OK that is worth $500, instead of $5000. Then they go off the deep
end & look for ways of not paying or jack your rates up. Had that
happen to a ham friend.
Here is the NEC link if bonding your station is what you want, but for
me, I disconnect coax, unplug DC input from power supply to junction box
& flip a master switch that turns off AC to power supply that is plugged
into a APC UPS. It has worked for 24 years & we get hammered in middle
TN with storms. Lightning is going to have to come through roof to hit
my gear, but it is not going to come though a #6 ground wire.
http://www.joneseducation.com:8080/xyleme_cre_player/courses/ncti/ep1101_01_dt/Scorm2004Content/media/DirecTV/Grounding/NEC_Section_810_Excerpt.pdf
73,
Reed W4JZ
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