[TenTec] Grounding

[ac5e at comcast.net]

Well, growing up in "tornado alley" and then living in the real "tornado capitol of the world," I have had a LOT of experience with nature's sparks. Maybe I'm paranoid but I don't like to lose equipment to lightning. 

Old Hardman told me sometime around 1949 that all lightning wants to do is go to ground. Anything that gets in the way of lightning going to ground will be destroyed. Anything that can be done to expedite the process will reduce the severity of lightning damage. So I help the big sparks go to ground every way I can. 

Most lightning damage is caused by power line surges - and there's no substitute for redundant surge protectors. The power company sells a "whole house surge protector" that is absolutely priceless when lightning hits the power line. If you want to do it yourself, most electrical supply houses will sell you all you can pay for. BUT - that is not enough. 

I use smaller high joule surge limiter/protectors on EVERY piece of equipment that is worth more than cost of the surge limiter. The computers; both here and at my business, have Brick Wall (brand) surge limiters, and at my business the sales computers have a Sola voltage regulator feeding sine wave UPS's  into a surge limiter for each server and each workstation. 

In almost twenty years here, I have two clock radios damaged by line surges. Total damage - less than twenty bucks, and that is less than the cost of two Radio Shack plug in surge limiters. At the shop, I lose an Ethernet card or two a year to lightning induced voltage surges on the cabling. I have been buying the cards in bulk, and keep spare workstations for the sales people. The next cycle of computer replacements I may go wireless. 

Here in the shack; I took advice from the local two way guys and drilled a hole from the center of the tower base hole to water. Forty feet of oil well drill stem (6 inch pipe with half inch wall) down the hole provides a heavy duty ground rod for the tower installation. A flat plate welded to the top of the ground provides a solid ground connection. A piece of 00 copper to each tower leg grounds the tower. An ICE coax grounding block on the plate grounds the coax shields. ICE and Polyphaser arrestors in each coax line mounted on a 4" X 1" piece of stainless flat bar help keep the sparks out of the shack. 

This setup has been up since New Years of 1990. The tower gets hit once or twice a year - and I replaced the lightning arrestors as a precaution last year. Total rig/rotor/accessory damage to date - $0.00. Nothing. De Nada. And yes I do operate during thunderstorms and no I do not disconnect anything for lighting or anything else. 

Now, every man to his own taste as the good man said as kissed the pig. These setups work for me. They are fairly elaborate but not overly costly considering the cost of replacing equipment. 

73  Pete Allen  AC5E




--
Never squat with your spurs on