[TowerTalk] phillystran vs lightning

[w8zh@juno.com]

the guys on our 150ft tower are not broken with insulators. as part of
the stacked tribander project we are planning to break the guys with
insulators or replace the top 40 ft of each guy with phillystran. our
tower is probably struck by lightning , due to our hilltop location, 3 or
4 times a year.. the tower has an 8ft rod on each leg  connected with 2/0
copper and a rod on each guy anchor as shown in the rohn catalogs. i
guess my question is has anyone heard of damage to phillystran after a
lightning strike.. i spoke with them last week and they were noncommital
at best. i am kind of leaning toward the insulators, which will just
flash over.  the phillystran would get  all of the metal out of the way
of the antennas. anyone have any thoughts on this.  incidently fwiw, the
only damage we have had has been to rotors and we cured this by
connecting the rotating mast to the tower so the path is not thru the
rotor.  we use a heavy braid negative battery cable from a farm tractor
and clamp 1 end to the rotating mast and the other end is bolted to one
of the tower legs.  this has also seemed to reduce precip noise.....w8zh


















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