[TowerTalk] Lightning and ground systems

[Richard T. Mainhart]

Charles and the group,

The National Lightning Protection Institute has a wonderful seminar on
lightning protection and suppression. They discuss the science of
lightning events that fully explain the "mysterious" events such as you
describe.

I've been working on lightning-prone sites and equipment for the past 23
years, and have found that as a general rule, shortcuts aren't!  Properly
designed lightning suppression and dissipation procedures will protect
you and your equipment ... provided you don't take shortcuts.

Yes, damage can and will occur ... but if you properly install your
equipment, the damage will away from your equipment. The San Francisco
area is not known for it's frequent lightning (in fact, when lightning is
detected it's front page news) but the (military)  remote transmitter
sites on the mountains around the bay area are built to the same strict
standards as the one's in Florida. 
A single hit to the Mt. Tamalpias site destroyed 500 feet of 3 phase
#0000 copper power conductor installed in an underground conduit, yet NO
other damage occurred. Over-engineered? No ... the site was back on the
air with a portable generator in 4 hours (the line ran from the power
distribution / emergency generator building to our little building off to
the side). 

Bottom line ... it's not too freaky, it's science. 

No flames intended, just want to share some of my experience.

73

Rick  WB3EXR

On Sat, 12 Apr 1997 12:04:31 -0400 (EDT) "Charles H. Harpole"
<harpole@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu> writes:
>Steve, until you have seen lightning take a path TO ground and AWAY 
>from
>ground in the same hit as I have, you will continue to think that
>disconnecting your radios from all outside wires and wiring is "only 
>in
>your head."
>Lightning is just too freeky for us humans --so far--  completely to
>understand.  De K4VUD

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