LIGHTENING
The dreaded topic of a lightening strike comes up every so often. Just came across one myself in a QSO on 160m that was so different than the rest I’ve heard about over the decades. In general discussions where OM’s, or YL’s stories weren’t quite clear over weather it was direct, or a near by strike their story doesn’t go too much further than what was damaged and the aftermath. Which brings me to the next topic and questions.
Station Grounding
This is for ONLY those operators who have been hit by lightening. Please describe in all honesty what your station grounds consisted of from your antennas to your radio station. Were your grounds flat copper, or flat braided straps, electrical THHN conductors and what size gauge, diameter and length of ground rods at the antenna and station including weather you cad welded, crimped, soldered, or crimped and soldered your ground terminating points? Did you use copper bus bars, or copper plumbing pipe for terminations? Did you use any particular brand lightening arrestors and did they work?
We don’t need, or speaking for myself I don’t need to read theorized opinions on lightening strikes and grounding. I’ve read and have enough experience in the field in grounding. Experience is worth a million theoretical words over opinions on how one should ground by those who say “I’m an engineer and I’ve written books on grounding”, but NEVER been hit by lightening. A persons story on being hit by lightening and what their station grounds consisted of may tell us a bit more over do’s and don’ts on station grounds and even then no matter how much we try to build an effective station ground the reality is we can’t emulate what commercial broadcast stations are building that helps them survive a hit. We can only try our best and as much as our pockets can afford to reduce the effects of a hit to what ever degree we possibly can.
Can’t wait to hear from those of you who are willing to share your experiences.
73,