[TowerTalk] Lightning protection (N3AE)

[Patrick Greenlee]

You can't out guess lightning but... grounding the feeders may dissipate
the static charge eliminating or reducing the severity of any strike.  At 
worst it would not help and your loss would be the same.

I can recall as a high school student when flying U-control model aircraft 
on stainless steel control lines connected to a plastic handle,  the static 
electricity would build up and discharge across the air gap to my hand.  I'd 
fly low till the engine died from fuel starvation or run the prop into weeds 
to kill the engine if the static were particularly troubling or a 
thunderstorm was approaching.

I received suggestions to run a ground wire from the control handle to the 
ground to avoid taking the arcs to my hand.  I declined in favor of trying 
to avoid conditions generating significant discharges up to and including 
putting a towel between two stakes and deliberately flying into the towed to 
kill the engine as the prop got tangled.

Some of the suggestions here about lightning protection reminded me of the 
suggestions I got but thought better of.


Patrick AF5CK



-----Original Message----- 
From: N3AE
Sent: Monday, July 08, 2013 12:45 PM
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Lightning protection (N3AE)


I use wire antennas here, stung up between tall trees. When not operating, 
the open wire feeders are disconnected from a remote tuner (mounted under 
the deck) and tied down in the yard 50 or more feet from the house.


A few years ago, my wire V-Beam must have taken a direct strike. Came home 
and found it down in the yard. The ladder line was as limp as a overcooked 
spagetti noodle. All the copper was gone on both sides! The insulation was 
cracked along the whole length of the ladder line where the vaporized copper 
must have exited. There was a 10 inch deep hole in the ground where the end 
of the feedline was tied down. The #14 copper antenna wire also melted at 
one spot, dropping the antenna off the one of the end insulators.


Nothing in the house was affected or damaged, but the cat was never the same 
afterwards when thunder was heard. I should probably note that all the 
power, phone and cable in our neighborhood is run underground.


Hate to think what the outcome would have been if the transmission lines 
were still hooked up, even with lightning arrestors and grounds at the 
entrance panel. I think I was lucky.


N3AE
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