Actually they do work, the power company here in Southern Maryland put
them on all
of their communications towers and they haven't been hit since.
To get them to work properly you HAVE to have a GOOD ground. You also
have to have
a BIG conductor connected directly to them and to the ground system
below.
You also have to have a lot of points. Several hundred or so. There has
to be
enough surface area to let the charge bleed off before the strike.
IF the charge builds up faster than can be dissipated, then lightning
will simply
strike your "spline balls" and not your antenna, which will still save
your system.
Its better to bleed it off, since induced voltages on your transmission
lines
might blow something up....
73 de Martin - N3HRT.
Keith Morehouse wrote:
>
> Roderick M. Fitz-Randolph wrote:
> >
> > I've been hit twice since then but the lightning has hit my "pointy,
> > spikey thing" and not my antennas.... for which I am most thankful.
>
> Sort of adds a big question mark to the argument that the "point, spiky
> things" dissipate the charge "...so your tower will never get hit..." !
>
> ---------------------------###-----------------------------
> PROBE ELECTRONICS 100 Higgins Road, Park Ridge IL 60068 USA
> Keith J. Morehouse / W9RM / Society of Midwest Contesters
> 847-696-2828 FAX: 847-698-2045 e-mail: blckhole@ripco.com
> ---------------------------###-----------------------------
>
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