Interesting to see the thread drift... I thank all of those who are concerned
about my antennas being unprotected... They are well grounded when not in use,
that is why I de-energized the antenna relay box as soon as I heard the
characteristic rapid popping in the receiver - cutting the power drops all the
antenna relays back to ground... The coax to the radio bench is also unscrewed
when I am not in the shack...
Whoever it was that posted about aircraft building up a static charge in
flight, is correct... I can tell you some hair raising incidents when flying,
the worst involving super cold precip, i.e. very dry snow, out over the Great
Lakes...
On the comment about the static voltage rising to high levels and possibly
damaging the coax... I have not seen that, but I routinely see the voltages
rise high enough to arc over at the PL-259... THis is most pronounced during
thunderstorms nearby, and conversely during fair, dry weather when the wind
blows actively...
denny / k8do
On the suggestion that the falling water drop is charged, I agree... The issue
is the polarity of charge and the mechanism... Given that the earth is
normally negative on the surface to mirror the positively charged cloud base
<cloud tops are negative>, I would expect the falling droplets to be positive,
i.e. lacking electrons, and that upon impacting the wire they attract an
electron... Where upon falling away from the wire they carry that electron with
them leaving the wire positively charged... Ja? No?
denny
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