I'll take those odds, and repeat - unless you are prepared to spend
totally disproportionate amounts of money, or have the EE smarts to do
it yourself, and the physical circumstancesto do everything optimally,
you are begging far more hurt by staying connected.
For every lightning hit 10 miles from a storm, there are probably a
thousand that are well forewarned. If you're looking to protect the
Space Shuttle, that's one, thing, but...
73, Pete N4ZR
Check out the Reverse Beacon Network at
http://reversebeacon.net,
blog at reversebeacon.blogspot.com.
For spots, please go to your favorite
ARC V6 or VE7CC DX cluster node.
On 7/8/2013 10:07 AM, Stan Labinsky Jr. wrote:
I have to chime in too.
This idea of only connecting the antenna & control cables when you're
going to operate and not relying on a properly designed and
implemented protection system begs hurt.
There are stories, presumably documented, of people being struck by
lightning from a storm ten miles away, in an area that did not appear
to be at storm risk... bright, sunny and clear.
And how often do we get so into what we're doing that we tune out all
else, including our spouse calling "dinner"?
Russian Roulette states that everybody who plays gets shot... eventually.
Stan
-----Original Message----- From: Jim Lux
Sent: Monday, July 08, 2013 9:28 AM
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Lightning protection
On 7/8/13 5:28 AM, Pete Smith N4ZR wrote:
My answeris simple - It is not cost-effective. They are using
extensive lightning grounding at the tower base, and purpose-built
transmitter
buildings with elaborate grounding systems. 24/7/365 costs.
Exactly..
They are also facing a very different cost/benefit analysis than the
typical ham. They pay a LOT more for the assembly and construction
labor than most hams do, so something like using AWG 2 instead of AWG 6
doesn't make a lot of difference in the overall construction cost.
And, their "cost of non-availability" can be substantially higher. If
an FAA control tower is off the air, that's a big problem and it gets a
lot of attention.
ask me whether a direct strike while connected would result in <5 volts
That's the other thing. Equipment designed for 24/7/52 kinds of usage
tends to be more rugged, and it tends to be "single frequency"...
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