[TowerTalk] Lightning

Charles H. Harpole harpole@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu
Thu, 22 May 1997 10:24:05 -0400 (EDT)


Hey gang, lightning again.
Had a hit on my Hustler G-6 (base at 88 feet).  Top alumn. tube is GONE.
Cant't find it on roof or earth!  SWR and freq resonance is way off,
surprize.  NO harm to coax, other antennas under, nor window patch panel.
My point:  My tower and coax system is as follows:  No ground rods on the
tower (just goes into concrete), coax comes down to a window patch panel,
where all sockets are insulated from each other and just floating (no
arrestors, no spark gap, no direct grounding), and all coax lines, power
lines, ground lines, and phone lines to the gear fully disconnected and
moved away from inlets of same.
Now, I get the hit and only the top Hustler gets fried.  Wuz I lucky or
maybe VUD's theory of antenna lightning protection worked--i.e., no
grounds, all floating, yields little path and little burning?  de K4VUD


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