It pains me to see hams with imperfect above-ground shack locations
thinking about installing hundreds of dollars' worth of Polyphasers in
pursuit of the wrong Holy Grail -- 24/7 antenna availability.
My shack is on the second floor. Fifteen years ago, after a lot of
thought, I decided that I would not be able to get a low-enough ground
inductance, and decided to go another route. I simply disconnect all
the conductors coming from the tower at the shack entry panel. Three
years ago, I took a direct hit on my 40m yagi. The barrel connectors in
the entry panel arced (very loud, scary noise) but nothing went any further.
I'm aware of the theoretical possibility of bonding everything in the
shack to a common ground, so that the whole thing rises above earth
ground during an "event" and then subsides, presumably without damage.
I'm not willing to risk it. 30 seconds unplugging three coax cables and
6 control cables seemed (and seems today) like a more reliable solution.
73, Pete N4ZR
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On 11/3/2009 11:59 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
> On Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:00:11 -0500, Mike wrote:
>
>
>> Would it be a reasonable idea to pull a ground out of the breaker box,
>> and tie it to the tower and bring it into the shack also to tie all this
>> together?
>>
>
> Yes, BUT: Don't use that circuitous route through the attic, because
> lightning won't follow it. Lighting will take the lowest impedance path,
> which is usually the shortest one. DO bond everything together by the
> shortest practical path, more connections are better. DO bond the tower
> directly to the electric service ground by the shortest practical path.
> Also, be sure to also bond together the telephone ground, and the CATV
> ground, the satellite dish ground with the electrical ground and the tower
> ground.
>
> 73,
>
> Jim K9YC
>
>
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