Name: Alex T Quarmyne
Call: 9G1TV
E-mail: radioada@ghana.com
Mail Address: P O Box KA9482, Accra, Ghana
We are running a community FM radio station in a small town, perhaps I should
say small village, called Ada, which is my home town. If you have a map of
West
Africa you might be able to locate Ada at the point where the River Volta
enters
the sea. On December 8 we got a direct lighting hit which destroyed our
transmitter, two audio mixers and two minidisc machines. To get an idea of
what
a station like ours goes through in such a situation, one needs to know
that we
have had to send the damaged items to Britain for repair. The transmitter is
back and the station is back on the air.
Naturally, we are going over our grounding system to ensure that we do all
that
can possibly be done in an effort to avoid a recurrence.
Before the lightning strike, we had on top of the 150-foot galvanized tower a
lightning arrester which was grounded to the tower at the top. The tower was
grounded to earth at the bottom using a 10mm bare copper cable and a 3-foot
copper rod burried 4 feet into the earth with a pipe inserted to allow weekly
watering to keep the soil around the copper rod always wet. The 7/8-inch
heliax feeder was also grounded to the tower at the top and also at a point
further down where it bends to leave the tower to enter the transmitter room.
Since the lightning strike, we have checked all connections to ensure that
contacts are good and have now installed a 10mm copper cable diretcly from
the
lightning arrester to the copper in the earth. We have also now connected
the
ground to the transmitter rack. An enginner we spoke to has recommended
that we
run another ground cable to the heliax feeder close to the point where it
enters
the transmitter. This will mean that the feeder will be grounded at three
points.
We have also ordered a surge protector which will be installed on the mains
coming into the building.
We shall very much appreciate any comments and advice.
>From Ghana, A Happy New Year to You All !
Alex.
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