[TowerTalk] Re: TowerTalk Digest, Vol 19, Issue 107

[Bill Fuqua]

Following are some links to information about "wire brush" static dissipators.

         It seems that cosmic rays produce the ionization  trails that the 
static charge follows to produce lightning. You can't stop cosmic rays nor 
can you discharge a cloud or earth to prevent lightning. However, such 
devices can be used as lightning rods. They are about as effective as a 
single lightning rod in determining where the lighting is going to strike 
your tower or house. So if you use such a device you must have a hefty 
ground wire and ground to carry the current safely to the earth.
     Also, if lightning does strike the porcupine or wire brush there may 
be a hundred  red hot needles (darts) shot in all directions when it hits. 
Could make things a bit exciting.

http://www.cltskywarn.org/lightning.htm
http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_lhm/charge_transfer.html
http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_lhm/magic.pdf
http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/cosmicrays/cratmos.html

73
Bill wa4lav





At 11:19 AM 7/28/2004 -0400, towertalk-request at contesting.com wrote:
>Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] spider balls
>To: <Lew at dsl-only.net>
>Cc: 'Towertalk Reflector' <towertalk at contesting.com>
>Message-ID: <004301c474ac$35c16440$6e2d5044 at homebrew1>
>Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>Sure. It's OK to be negative without adequate supportive data, but not 
>positive. It's OK to look for reasons to disbelieve.