Re: [OT]Grounding Antenna when not in use

[Fred Atchley]

Dale, WC7S wrote:

I disconnect... all the radios. and I have still heard the coax zapping,
during a storm.

I'm thinking that is enough to cook a junction.

End snip

 

I've heard that eerie ticking coming from my "lightening bug arrester". This
ticking increases to a buzz as the storm gets closer.

I've often wondered why more hams haven't become "SK". First, they construct
this big "lightening catcher" in their yard, and then they run a very good
conductor into the house! Diodes are the least of my worries.

Speaking of diodes, back in the "good ol daze", vacuum tubes could take a
lot of abuse and "heal up". But solid state devices don't heal up; they
suffer from tunneling, which is permanent.

The best advice is to disconnect both the antenna and power if you live in
an area where lightening is prevalent.

Fortunately for me, I moved to S. California to be near the grandkids.
Lightening storms out here are so rare that if you hear a clap of thunder,
you are sure to read about it in paper the next day.

73, Fred, K3 2241

 

______________________________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[hidden email]

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

[Guy, K2AV]

Back in the 60's when I was in Wash DC VA suburbs, and pretty green
about things electrical, I had a 40m vertical that used the
boom/parasitic elements of my tribander as a counterpoise. The shield
was at DC ground from the tower.  The center conductor was straight
from the vertical.  I kept it disconnected unless in use.  When a
thunderstorm approached it would periodically kzap across the PL259,
with the frequency increasing as the storm approached, sometimes
getting to 5 or 10 kzaps per second. I put it on a panel style DC
meter once and got half scale-ish current that varied wildly and
increased as storm near, going to peg. I don't recall the sensitivity
of the meter.

The top of the vertical was at about 105 feet.  It was never struck
that I know of.  The one close strike was to blow a 15 foot mimosa
tree into toothpicks.  The tree was twenty feet from either house and
about 100 feet away from the tower.   The tower extended about a foot
and a half into dirt below 5' of concrete for the base, so it was
grounded.

Along with many other risky episodes in my teens and early twenties, I
wonder how I survived being electrocuted, smoked, crushed, burned....

73, Guy.

On Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 11:59 AM, Fred Atchley <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Dale, WC7S wrote:
>
> I disconnect... all the radios. and I have still heard the coax zapping,
> during a storm.
>
> I'm thinking that is enough to cook a junction.
>
> End snip
>
>
>
> I've heard that eerie ticking coming from my "lightening bug arrester". This
> ticking increases to a buzz as the storm gets closer.
>
> I've often wondered why more hams haven't become "SK". First, they construct
> this big "lightening catcher" in their yard, and then they run a very good
> conductor into the house! Diodes are the least of my worries.
>
> Speaking of diodes, back in the "good ol daze", vacuum tubes could take a
> lot of abuse and "heal up". But solid state devices don't heal up; they
> suffer from tunneling, which is permanent.
>
> The best advice is to disconnect both the antenna and power if you live in
> an area where lightening is prevalent.
>
> Fortunately for me, I moved to S. California to be near the grandkids.
> Lightening storms out here are so rare that if you hear a clap of thunder,
> you are sure to read about it in paper the next day.
>
> 73, Fred, K3 2241
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>

______________________________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[hidden email]

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

[Mike K8CN]

Guy's story reminds me of an experience in my teenage days when I had a tri-band, 2 element cubical quad on a 40 foot tower.  I had made a crude grounding rack for the separate feedlines using nails appropriately spaced in a scrap 2x4 to hang the PL-259s, and the nails were grounded to the mains ground with some wire braid stripped from old coax.   I returned home from a family vacation one summer to find the PL-259s welded to the nails.  There was no sign of other damage, so there must have been a relatively gentle surge induced by lightning.  I don't recommend my grounding technique (I was 14 or 15 and pretty naive about lightning-induced currents), but I still disconnect feedlines (and ground them!) religiously.

Mike, K8CN