[TowerTalk] Lightning - was Advice

[Rick Stealey]

Hi Ed,

You said:
>I can't do a "whole house ground" the way my place is laid out. There
>are three grounds at the tower, three under my window and four near
>the main entry panel.

Are your various grounds tied together?  If not, there can still be 
instantaneous voltage differences between the grounds that can be huge.  The 
telephone line had high voltage on it resulting from the induced current 
from the strike.  It should be grounded at the entrance to the home and that 
ground should be common with all other grounds (such as the station ground 
and the tower ground).

I had a direct hit in my front yard 10 years ago, at 3 am.  Hit an 80 foot 
oak tree and eventually killed it.  It brought me right up out of my bed 
about 3 feet.  I thought someone had just fired a 12 gauge shotgun right 
outside my window, honest ! I've been constantly building and improving my 
ground ever since.  Currently have about 20 rods - at the tower, along 
radials from the tower, at the house entrance, outside shack wall (single 
point ground for equipment) and all grounds tied together and to the service 
entrance ground.  I have 8 Polyphasors on coax, telephone, rotor control, 
and tv cable and I need more for the SteppIR controller.

If you will read W8JI's website (w8ji.com) you will get a lot of info.  He 
believes in solid grounds but that lightning arrestors are unnecessary.  
Interesting reading.

Rick  K2XT

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