[TowerTalk] Lightning

[G. Boyd]

One of my two (soon to be three) towers took a hit just a couple of
weeks ago.  Only damage was to a 12 inch section of coax which was taped
to the mast apparantly right where the hit was.  Did lose a computer but
that was due to my failure to protect the phone line going to the
computer's modem.  Nothing else (two radios, two amps, rotors, antennas,
packet computer, switches, etc.) was damaged.

The grounding system here is "single point"--i.e. each tower base is
connected via #4 stranded copper to an 8 foot ground rod.  ALL ground
rods (towers, shack, telephone, and AC main) are connected together in a
"single point"--a la ARRL antenna books.

All coax and rotor cable runs are above ground (about 12 feet up so
deer, horses, etc don't get em) and come to a panel where bulkhead
connectors are used for the coax.  Rotor cables all have molex "quick
disconnects"  inside the shack which are unplugged when not in use.  The
coax lines go to ground through switch when not in use.

73
Jerry
K6BZ

--
FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
Submissions:              towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests:  towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems:                 owner-towertalk@contesting.com
Search:                   http://www.contesting.com/km9p/search