[TowerTalk] Lightning strike...help

VE6WZ ve6wz@home.com
Fri, 29 Jun 2001 07:01:05 -0600


I took a lightning strike at 3:00 pm local time yesterday.  My wife
described it as an "explosion" and my daughter saw a "bright white and blue
light with orange balls" floating around in a room with no windows!!!
Scared the $#*& out of the cat. Minimal damage...looks like my ground works.

I have a US tower 89' heavy-duty motorized crank-up...it was cranked DOWN.
(motor still works ok)

 Inspection of the tower shows three distinct places along my mast where the
strike hit....these marks have a scratched look as though someone has taken
a wire brush to the mast and removed some metal....only a slight scorch/
discolored look.

Question: Should I consider my mast to be mechanically compromised ? I
assume that the galvanizing is gone at these places and may be prone to rust
now.
 Anyone out here with experience about this??  Obviously i need to have some
discussions with the Insurance company.

de Steve.



List Sponsor: Are you thinking about installing a tower this summer? Call us
for information on our fabulous Trylon Titan self-supporting towers - up to
96-feet for less than $2000! at 888-833-3104 <A HREF="http://www.ChampionRadio.com">
www.ChampionRadio.com</A>

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