[TowerTalk] tower grounding

[K8RI]

On 7/24/2013 1:20 AM, Grant Saviers wrote:
> My sailboat was at the wharf, plugged into shore power when a
> thunderstorm passed by about a 1/4 mile away.  Each lightning flash was
> accompanied with an arc over SNAP in the 120v outlets.  Scary how much
> voltage that takes.  My exposed lead keel in salt water was tied to the
> shore power grounding lead.   Concluding I was the best local power grid
> ground, I quickly disconnected from shore power.
>
> Grant KZ1W

Many years ago our old house was made up of three individual houses 
fitted together to make one decent looking home of reasonable size.  It 
had been modernized a few times so it looked much like most farm homes 
of that era.  The age was evident in the basement where the floors above 
may have been nice looking hardwood, but were resting on rough hewn logs 
still containing most of the bark. Age was evident in the attic where 
the knob and tube wiring meant "be careful"  The wire had originally had 
insulation which was a fabric like material, but most of that had long 
ago fallen off.

Not exactly very tight in a strong wind either.

One year we were taking a lot of lightening damage. Eventually they 
found the neutral was not connected at the pole.

I would have thought there would have been other obvious problems as the 
house was on a sand hill with the sand being generally dry, so the 
ground probably wasn't.  Apparently that several hundred feet of 
disconnected neutral weas good for a lot of induced voltage.  Wonder it 
didn't burn down.

73

Roger (K8RI)

>
>
> On 7/23/2013 6:38 PM, Spencer wrote:
>> I did some maintenance on a steel boat. The utility company had
>> connected the ground to
>> the hull when connected to shore power. There was serious corrosion
>> problems. I measured
>> the ground wire current with a amp-probe, 3 amps. I disconnected the
>> ground and the problem went away.
>> Your tower might be the ground connection for the electric utility
>> company. The waveform is
>> distorted and has a DC component that will cause big problems and a
>> nice place for current flow
>> during a lightning strike.
>> Spencer
>> W1GAK
>>
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