[TenTec] Argonaut VI Lost RX/TX on 160/80 Meters-- Poly Phaser resources

[Reed]

Billy, at my other QTH I had all the gear bonded.  I had two 8 foot 
ground rods, one for ham gear & other one for a vertical. All this 
bonded back to the ground rod at the meter base.  Guess what, took a hit 
& it followed that ground wire right to the back of 2 pieces of 
equipment.  Luckily, at the time, I was working on rig & it was not 
connected to anything.  It did zap my power supply that was unplugged 
from the AC & did some damage to an old Dentron Amp that was plugged 
into the AC, but not on.  Coax was disconnected.  If it had been a 
direct hit I doubt I would be here at this time.

No, I haven't been hit here hard by lightning that got inside. It all 
has stayed outside. Argonaut went out while listening to 75 meters, 
clear day, but 40 through 10 meters was fine.  This was a failed 
component, if it had been hit by static it would have taken out the 
receive section.  Low pass filter board that uses SMD to switch bands 
was the component that went out.  I just added a Alpha Delta surge 
protector because I thought static electricity might have been the 
problem, but after studying the schematic & talking to several techs 
there is no way static could have done this.  Just a switching 
component, relay in a 100 watt rigs, that failed. But having the Alpha 
Delta surge protection isn't a bad thing in the future.

I don't have the large antenna farm like you do.  No room!  I only have 
one coax, Belden RG-213, going to a electronic antenna switch outside.  
I don't use verticals anymore, because I get hit every year with them. 
Live on a very high hill.  No matter how well grounded they are & how 
well grounded the antenna switch is, I still have to take it apart and 
replace several diodes.  I don't care for DX anymore so no loss losing 
the vertical.  it is just used now to see which way wind is blowing.

So one beam & 135 foot OCF dipole is all antennas I have out side.  All 
coax is buried up to switch & out to antennas.

And yes, if I'm not using rig all is disconnected!  My station is in 
middle of house with coax under ground except portion  that comes up 
from underneath of house.  Meter base is on one side of house and 
antennas on other side, far end of property.  No way would I want a 
bonded ground going to all this back to the meter base ground rod. If 
lightning hits the electrical line on pole outside, which has happened 
blowing transformer, then going to ground, guess what.. it would be 
coming right into the shack & if I was touching rig I could be killed.  
Sorry, I can't see bonding back to meter base ground rod for lightning 
protection.  I did lose some stereo gear because of this, but that was 
only thing plugged in at time.  Now I have APC UPS on all electronic 
equipment in house including my wife's Bernina sewing machine.

Bob Heil had a very good discussion on this on Ham Nation sometime back 
in winter or sometime last year.  He doesn't ground his station either 
for the same reason.  Electrical it makes sense, but that is what the 
ground wire is for in your AC outlet.

I understand your reason to bond everything, but I also understand my 
reason not too.  I've seen what direct hits can do & being on this high 
hill I don't want a strong  path to the inside of my house either 
through lightning hitting power line or antenna.

73,
Reed  W4JZ