[TowerTalk] US Tower damaged by lightning

[N7mal]

Jerry have you ever taken a 'direct' lightening strike?? I suspect not 
otherwise you would not have made this statement: "" You have a large amount 
of damage that should have not happened. "" I had just as much damage 
because like Jim we had no warning of an impending storm, so I made no 
precautions like disconnecting ant etc.

Now for Jim: This statement is accurate if you multiply it by 100: "" It was 
exciting - very loud, bright, and the house shook. ""
When it happened to me my XYL and I were watching TV in the living room. The 
only thing louder than the lightening strike was when I jumped out of my 
chair and yelled "OH SH*T". I've never seen anything as 'white' as the light 
from the strike.
Jim you also said: "" but measurements from the ground indicate the remote 
switch, rotor, and SteppIR are damaged "" Measuring anything from the ground 
is totally meaningless. I found lightening had made a path through the 
RG213. I've since used it as a couple of radials for the 40M vert.

Finally Steve said: "" You  could be candid with your insurance folks  "". 
Insurance companies are not in business to pay claims, especially extended 
claims. I'm almost 70 years old and I got a real awakening dealing with the 
insurance company. It was the first time ever I had a homeowners policy 
claim. Hopefully/maybe this summer I will get the last of the checks, after 
more than 2 years. I had more/less the same kind of damage Jim had. The 
insurance company just tried to compound the problems by trying to shift 
blame etc.

As I said to you Jim in an earlier email, "" Good luck......your fun has 
just begun""
73


MAL
N7MAL
BULLHEAD CITY, AZ
http://www.n7mal.com
Everyone in the world is
entitled to be burdened
by my opinion

----- Original Message ----- 
From: K4SAV
To: Tower and HF antenna construction topics.
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 21:43
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] US Tower damaged by lightning


You have a large amount of damage that should have not happened.  You
should really try hard to figure out why.  After you get all this
repaired, it would be nice to know why this happened and that you
corrected that problem that allowed that to happen.  Your insurance
company won't  be happy to see you returning for a second claim of this
size either.  It's difficult to make good suggestions just looking at
the pictures because it is difficult to see the "big wiring picture".
Making wild guesses is unlikely to help.  From all the burn marks on AC
outlets and the main AC panel, it is obvious that the AC wiring
conducted a huge amount of current thru your house. Try to figure where
the path is that allowed it to get there.  I can see one possibility of
it entering the tower control box and then down the AC wiring, but I
don't know where that wiring goes or how it is routed.

I see the entrance panel but it is unclear where that is located.  It
appears to be inside the house somewhere.  I can't see how long the
ground wire is from the entrance panel to the AC service ground rod.

I can see three ground wires leaving the tower but I don't know how many
ground rods are used.   In one picture it appears that one of those
ground wires (the stranded one) is blown in two.  Is that true (or just
an illusion in the photo)?  If so, I would want to know why.

Look to see if there are any other burn marks on other objects outside
the house, like outside AC outlet boxes, water spigots, chimney (which
usually has a metal liner), roof vents, or even concrete walls (which
has rebar in many places).  Maybe there was a secondary finger that
attached itself to one of those items.   Also if for some reason the
tower ground was poor, the tower could have possibly been elevated to
such a high potential that a side flash occurred.

Jerry, K4SAV

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