[TowerTalk] Lightning

[Kenneth Goodwin]

This is my experience also having had my 80-foot tower for 38 years.  I've
had three 'excess energy' experiences: one was a direct hit to a nearby pine
tree 100 feet from the tower and the other two came thru the cable line.
The tower has never been touched.  After the first cable system excess
energy hit, I installed a high frequency, gas discharge device and still
experienced some damage the second time but just to the USB and serial ports
associated with my station.  Since that event, I've installed an industrial
surge protected USB hub for all I/O lines that I can easily disconnect.  The
station is on a single point ground system with every line coming into the
shack on some sort of protector and the house has a surge protector at the
breaker box.  Mr. Lamb has it correct, your cable/Internet/telephone lines
are the highest incident probability.  But I will add one more piece of
advice, "You can't fool Mother Nature".  Disconnecting everything has now
become my modus operandi even with the substantial investment in protection
devices in addition to an ARRL equipment insurance policy.  Unlike many
years past, you don't have to insure your entire station but just specific
listed equipment.  When the Rohn SSV tower had to be part of the insurance
policy, it was expensive.  The ARRL policy today is just a simple marine
insurance policy with the amount of insurance specified by the user.  If you
lose a piece of equipment, you'll be paid the amount you insured, no
questions asked.  The insurance rates are simply $$ per value insured.

Message: 4
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2017 08:52:44 -0400
From: "Wilson Lamb" <infomet at embarqmail.com>
To: "towertalk-request at contesting.com" <towertalk at contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Lightning
Message-ID: <E7548854D0D04BA2BCE50F63A44A1767 at HPHOMEPC>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="utf-8"

The main thing to remember is that although the probability of an event is
low, the consequences can be high.
Katrina was such an event for some people, as was the Japanese tsunami.
My experience is that powerline/phone line surges coming in from a
relatively large area are near certain to occur and can produce serious,
though not catastrophic damage!  If you have a radio hardwired to a LAN, it
can surely be zapped.  I?ve lost multiple modems and telephones, even LAN
cards, to conducted surges! So be sure your phone demarc is up to snuff!
For power line incomings, I use a whole house surge protector at my breaker
box.  I have no idea if it?s ever done anything, but they seem to be
considered effective.  WL