[TowerTalk] Shack ground disconnect?

[Steve Katz]

It is from those very same cows that we get Condensed Milk.

"Success is the ability to go from failure to failure with no loss of
enthusiasm." -Winston Churchill

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Roger D. Johnson [SMTP:n1rj at pivot.net]
> Sent:	Friday, March 14, 2003 2:20 PM
> To:	Rob Atkinson, K5UJ
> Cc:	towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject:	Re: [TowerTalk] Shack ground disconnect?
> 
>  I remember hearing a story about some cows sheltering under
> a tree during a thunderstorm. Lightning struck the tree and
> the cows facing towards or away from the tree were electrocuted
> while those broadside to the tree were not. The explanation was
> that, as the charge dissipated through the ground, the cows
> facing toward or away from the tree had their front and rear
> hooves on ground of much different potentials. Those broadside
> has much less difference between left and right side hooves.
> 
>  I would think that a wire connected to a ground rod under these
> conditions would behave much the same. If the equipment in the
> shack had no other current path, nothing would happen as they
> would all rise to the same potential simultaneously. However,
> if there was another path to ground, it could have a vastly
> different potential and sparks would fly. 
> 
>  Ask me sometime about the Great Lightning Disaster at the LORAN
> station I commanded. It was caused by the Coast Guard insistance
> on separate ground systems for the transmitter and timing equipment.
> 
> 73, Roger
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