[TowerTalk] Not a good way to disconnect

[Cqtestk4xs at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/15/2011 1:45:26 AM Greenwich Standard Time,  
k8ri-on-towertalk at tm.net writes:

An  antenna and feed line left floating (ungrounded) can develop a very 
high,  and dangerous potential even without lightening.  The typical 
strike  a mile away can induce as much as a 1000 volts per meter into 
that antenna  and feed line. If it's floating, there is no way for it to 
bleed off  safely.  Grounded the precipitation static can not build up 
and the  induced charge is rapidly bled off.
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You bet it can.  A good friend of mine used to just disconnect  the coax 
and lay it on the floor when he wasn't on the air.  Uh, this  wasn't a good 
idea in the thunderstorm capitol of the US.  He came home one  summer 
afternoon to find his radio room rather dusty with chards of concrete  embedded in 
the ceiling and walls.
 
It seems there was a lightning hit which traveled down the coax  into the 
radio room and blasted a hole in the concrete floor on it's trip to  ground.  
 
He no longer uses that disconnect method.
 
Bill K4XS/KH7XS