[TowerTalk] Grounding the rotor cable

[Cqtestk4xs at aol.com]

At 12:47 PM 11/26/2006, Bill Turner wrote:
>I've read the PolyPhaser  document on protection for ham stations but
>it is vague on how to protect  rotator cables. First, I wonder how much
>protection, if any, is needed in  the first place? In my tower, the
>rotator is inside the tower and the  control lines run down inside the
>tower as well. Coming out from the  tower at the bottom, they run
>underground to the shack, about 70 feet  away. It seems to me that
>neither the rotator nor the lines 
``~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Interesting thoughts.  I NEVER ran any Polyphasers etc on my rotor  cables.  
Everything was disconnected at the bulkhead by Cinch-Jones  plugs.  Amazingly 
even though I had lots of rotors on the 200 foot  towers, I never had a rotor 
failure from a lightning hit...mechanical  damage from wind etc, but no 
electrical problems.  My gut feeling is there  are few direct hits on the rotor 
cables and most of the damage from  non-disconnected stems from the induced 
voltage of the hit and perhaps providing  a great ground for the main lighting 
charge to travel to ground through the  house mains by way of a short, jumping from 
the tower or coax to the  cable.
 
Bill K4XS/KH6