[TowerTalk] grounding elevated vertical for lightning?

[Jim Brown]

On 2/9/2013 12:43 PM, Mark Robinson wrote:
> Could he not also ground through an rf choke to bleed off static? 

Lighting is NOT a DC event, it is an RF event.  Chokes block it (until 
they fry).  Not a solution.  As AC0C noted, the coax is grounded at the 
house/shack, as it must be, which provides a DC path anyway.

As W8JI has observed with respect to several other problems of this 
nature, we must consider the entire system.  The length of the coax 
matters a lot -- a long run of coax has a lot of inductance, so it's 
close to an open circuit for lightning.

Jim Lux got it right -- a spark gap to a local rod does the job for 
lightning and doesn't degrade the antenna system.

73, Jim K9YC