Dear Steve,
Thanks for the reply. This is one thing I haven't tried. You raise a
good point about bonding the tower joint's. When struggling with a problem
such as this, one has to try everything. Common sense tells me lightning
strikes aren't necessarly a random event. So I'll keep on expermenting in
hopes of reducing the frequency of these big hits. My nerves can't take
much more!
73, Mick W4YV
----------
> From: Stephen Vinson <kd4wiw@ipass.net>
> To: M.G. Brafford <brad4@bellatlantic.net>
> Cc: towertalk@contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Dealing with Lightning
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
> Date: Tuesday, May 12, 1998 2:46 AM
>
> M.G. Brafford wrote:
> >
> >After suffering seven lightning strikes in the last two years, I'm
>starting to think the "ole ground rod per tower leg" just isn't cutting
>it anymore.
>
> > 73, Mick W4YV
>
> Mick ... I read your post with interest. I have a 145' tower with 12'
> mast and 12' antenna mounted above it. I have installed PolyPhasers on
> all feed lines and installed a PolyPhaser strike counter. I even
> extended the leads longer than recommended which should allow me to
> measure near strikes. To date (after several severe storms) I have no
> recordings on the counter.
>
> I noticed that you have done the normal grounding setup by most amateurs
> but (and I might have missed it) I did not hear you say you had bonded
> all tower sections together. That might be why your Indonesian friends
> tower has not suffered a strike. Try bonding the tower sections to
> gether at the joints. Use stainless bands and straps and use a
> electrical antioxidant to treat the connections.
>
> What is probably happening is that the joints have oxidized and thus the
> tower is building a charge (capacitor effect) that is not bleed off by
> the ground strap well ... until the charge builds to such a level or the
> tower is struck due to the charge it holds. Grounding lowers the
> potential due to static charge build up, but only if a low resistant
> path is present to bleed off the charge.
>
> I don't profess to know alot about grounding. I my self am learning but
> one of our local repeaters will get very noisy (electrically) when the
> joints oxidize in the joints. Bonding the sections reduces this build
> up.
>
> I hope someone will add more to this or help in any way that I might
> have miss lead you. Hope this helps !!!!
>
> Steve
> KD4WIW
> --
> ===========================================
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> ===========================================
> TOWERS ARE BEAUTIFUL !!!!
> ===========================================
>
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