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Posted by Tony Hwang on October 15, 2009, 11:03 pm
aemeijers wrote:
> Red Green wrote:
>>>> Was talking with someone the other day and mentioned that I had just
>>>> grounded the TV antenna (the mast, actually) to protect against
>>>> lightning strikes, and they said that was not such a good idea
>>>> because lightning is more likely to strike a path that goes straight
>>>> to ground. Now I am no
>>> t
>>>> sure what to do. Anyone have any input on this topic? Ideas are gra
>>> tefully
>>>> received...
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Dave
>>> Nah. Don't bother the lightning; if it strikes the antenna will go to
>>> ground through the TV set etc. (probably blowing the sh*t out of
>>> it!). And then find a way to the home's water supply pipe through
>>> Grandma's vintage silverware.
>>> More seriously: Some may remember church towers that had heavy copper
>>> strips from ground to a spike on top of the steeple etc.
>>> The idea being to try and discharge the high voltage of an incipient
>>> lightning strike before an arc occurred.
>>> Metal boat masts should be 'grounded' to the water for similar reason.
>> Church behind my house in VT took such a hit a couple of years ago
>> when I was there.
>> Pics of big bang result and rebuilding on pg 72.
>>
http://www.town.williston.vt.us/website/images/documents/annual_report/annrept.pdf
>> http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2007-06-04-tower_N.htm?csp=34
>
> So what are you supposed to do if antenna is on opposite side of house
> from electric service and ground stake, and no plausible way to run a
> cable between them? Yes, this is an actual question.
>
> --
> aem sends...
Hi,
You can use a ground rod at the base of antenna tower. Good way of
testing quality of ground rod is try to light up a light bulb between
ground rod and hot wire from house power wiring. If the bulb lights up
bright it is good. As a ham operator my grond is 3 rods tied together in
triangular pattern. Also the holes have charcoal pieces in them.
Also it is OK to install ~2 Meg. Ohm resistor across coax leads or twin
leads to bypass static build up.
If you got struck by direct hit even good grounding is not a safe bet.
Once I had a direct hit on my super large scale IT system located in the
basement of 7 story building. It knocked off main power breaker situated
in the next room with back up M-G set, wiped out most of data from
mass storage sub-system randomly. 3 day and nights to restore the system
from back up. So my idea on lightning strike is there is no 100%
protection. In my 50 odd years of HAM operation I never suffered a
lightning damage to my equipment. I have been lucky.
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Posted by on October 16, 2009, 11:51 am
wrote:
>Red Green wrote:
>>
>>>> Was talking with someone the other day and mentioned that I had just
>>>> grounded the TV antenna (the mast, actually) to protect against
>>>> lightning strikes, and they said that was not such a good idea
>>>> because lightning is more likely to strike a path that goes straight
>>>> to ground. Now I am no
>>> t
>>>> sure what to do. Anyone have any input on this topic? Ideas are gra
>>> tefully
>>>> received...
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Dave
>>> Nah. Don't bother the lightning; if it strikes the antenna will go to
>>> ground through the TV set etc. (probably blowing the sh*t out of
>>> it!). And then find a way to the home's water supply pipe through
>>> Grandma's vintage silverware.
>>> More seriously: Some may remember church towers that had heavy copper
>>> strips from ground to a spike on top of the steeple etc.
>>> The idea being to try and discharge the high voltage of an incipient
>>> lightning strike before an arc occurred.
>>> Metal boat masts should be 'grounded' to the water for similar reason.
>>
>>
>> Church behind my house in VT took such a hit a couple of years ago when I was
there.
>>
>> Pics of big bang result and rebuilding on pg 72.
>>
http://www.town.williston.vt.us/website/images/documents/annual_report/annrept.pdf
>>
>> http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2007-06-04-tower_N.htm?csp=34
>So what are you supposed to do if antenna is on opposite side of house
>from electric service and ground stake, and no plausible way to run a
>cable between them? Yes, this is an actual question.
If you don't find a way to bond them together the lightning will find
it for you.
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Posted by GoHabsGo on October 15, 2009, 10:09 am
> Was talking with someone the other day and mentioned that I had just
> grounded the TV antenna (the mast, actually) to protect against
> lightning strikes, and they said that was not such a good idea because
> lightning is more likely to strike a path that goes straight to
> ground. Now I am not sure what to do. Anyone have any input on this
> topic? Ideas are gratefully received...
Antennas should be grounded in two ways. First the mast should be grounded
and second, the cable feeding from the antenna should be grounded to a
grounding block that is wired to a ground source before entering the home.
Grounding is not only for lightning strikes. Wind blowing over the tines
creates static electrical charge that will be discharged through the ground
wire.
Larry
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Posted by Dave on October 15, 2009, 10:19 am
>> Was talking with someone the other day and mentioned that I had just
>> grounded the TV antenna (the mast, actually) to protect against
>> lightning strikes, and they said that was not such a good idea because
>> lightning is more likely to strike a path that goes straight to
>> ground. Now I am not sure what to do. Anyone have any input on this
>> topic? Ideas are gratefully received...
> Antennas should be grounded in two ways. First the mast should be
> grounded
> and second, the cable feeding from the antenna should be grounded to a
> grounding block that is wired to a ground source before entering the home.
> Grounding is not only for lightning strikes. Wind blowing over the tines
> creates static electrical charge that will be discharged through the
> ground
> wire.
> Larry
Hadn't even thought of this. My heartfelt thanks,
Dave
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Posted by The Daring Dufas on October 17, 2009, 8:52 pm
Dave wrote:
>>> Was talking with someone the other day and mentioned that I had just
>>> grounded the TV antenna (the mast, actually) to protect against
>>> lightning strikes, and they said that was not such a good idea because
>>> lightning is more likely to strike a path that goes straight to
>>> ground. Now I am not sure what to do. Anyone have any input on this
>>> topic? Ideas are gratefully received...
>> Antennas should be grounded in two ways. First the mast should be
>> grounded
>> and second, the cable feeding from the antenna should be grounded to a
>> grounding block that is wired to a ground source before entering the home.
>> Grounding is not only for lightning strikes. Wind blowing over the tines
>> creates static electrical charge that will be discharged through the
>> ground
>> wire.
>> Larry
>
> Hadn't even thought of this. My heartfelt thanks,
>
> Dave
>
>
If you've ever listened to any sort of shortwave broadcasts on a whip
antenna, you may have heard static discharges that make a zip, zip,
zip sound through the speaker at regular intervals.
TDD
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