[TowerTalk] lightning arrester suggestions

[n4zkf n4zkf.com]

I was not speaking of the 500' + towers I built. Where it is 200' from the building or the ring on the anchors are 750' away. I was talking about towers close to your shack around the house. You should have the coax grounded at the bottom of the tower and at the building both if it's that far away.

I built over 6000 towers in 33 years in operations in telecom. Never lost any equipment to lighting other than polys and antennas. We used mostly LDF7. Here at the house, I use LDF4 on everything. Lightning will travel down he outside of it.


Dave Calder
n4zkf at n4zkf.com
dxc.n4zkf.com 7373
www.n4zkf.com
n4zkf/r 147.375 103.5



-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk <towertalk-bounces at contesting.com> On Behalf Of Jim Brown
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2025 5:27 PM
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] lightning arrester suggestions

On 12/15/2025 1:56 PM, n4zkf n4zkf.com wrote:
> As mentioned, the buss bar should be connected to the house ground, and I also have a ground ring around each tower with 9 rods all shot to the ring and not clamped. Keep it all on the same potential.

That depends entirely on the distance between the tower and the premises. Lightning is an RF event, and at RF, a wire looks like a big inductor. I've seen credible recommendations (IEEE, for example), that says if more than 60 ft, (I've used 100 ft) a bonding conductor is not needed for lightning safety. BUT -- if there is mains power at the tower, wiring to it MUST, by law, carry a bonding conductor (green wire) for electrical safety -- that is, to blow a breaker in the event of a fault that makes a chassis "hot" to protect personnel.

73, Jim K9YC







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