[TowerTalk] static drainage

[Jon Ogden]

on 1/27/03 10:57 AM, Tom Anderson at ww5l at gte.net wrote:

> If you're disconnecting the coax outside, don't forget about the equipment
> grounds.  Several years ago a friend of mine in Arlington TX had all of his
> coax disconnected when lightning hit the top of his 60 ft. tower.  The surge
> came down the tower and into the ground underneath his house and came back up
> his equipment ground located on the opposite side of the house from the tower.
> It fried everything he had common point "grounded" in the shack, including his
> Icom 751A.


That sounds like his ground system wasn't adequate to handle the surge.  You
need to have a distributed ground system on your tower.  And I guess that's
another reason to have all your grounds tied together so everything rises
and falls in potential together.

I wonder how many towers just don't have it..

73,

Jon
NA9D

-------------------------------------
Jon Ogden
NA9D (ex: KE9NA)

Citizen of the People's Democratic Republik of Illinois

Life Member: ARRL, NRA
Member:  AMSAT, DXCC

http://www.qsl.net/na9d   <- Updated on 1/22/03!!!

"A life lived in fear is a life half lived."