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[TowerTalk] A lightning story

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Subject: [TowerTalk] A lightning story
From: tbarnett@fairway.stdio.com (Tyler Barnett)
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 12:07:12 -0400 (EDT)
Lightning can be strange the way it acts.

At my work QTH, there was a crank-up tower mounted on a trailer with
rubber tires, and it was cranked down and folded over horizontal.
Total height above ground was not more than 6' or so.  
The trailer hitch was resting on a large block of wood.

In other words, the trailer was NOT grounded anywhere,
except through it's full-size tires, and the hitch and wood block under it.
I doubt a VOM could detect any resistance from the trailer to a ground rod.

The trailer was sitting in a paved asphalt parking lot, and nothing around it.
Well, almost nothing, except:
- a 80' tower 100' away
- a 125' tower also 100' away
- a very tall TV tower approx 800' tall about 500' away

On each 4 corners of the trailer were crank-down supports, that
looked like rounded saucers, meant to level the trailer wherever it was placed.
These "saucer legs" (for lack of a better term), were about 4" off the asphalt.

Lightning apparently struck one end of the horizontal folded-over tower, as
evidenced by the burnt mark there.  The asphalt under each support saucer
was scorched and cracked in a perfect circle the same diameter as the saucer
itself.  

When I see a storm coming while on a golf course, I get off it quickly.
I'm about 6' tall, and the trees around me aren't 800' tall.

Tyler N4TY

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