Hi,

Was your house/shack stroken by Thor's hammer, I mean a lightning recently ?
I am interested in your experience...

If your installaiton was damaged by a strike event, I would like to now if :
- you used a central ground point bonded to an external grounding system, as
well as the home ground.
- you left some gears switched on during the strike event
- you left the TX switched on and the coaxial plugged without protection
- you installed or not lightning controllers in your electric distribution
panel
- you had installed another protection
- you swicthed off and unplugged all devices
- you think that the energy came back via the grounding network (probably
dut to a difference of potential in a device)

Tell me only in a few words what was the most probable cause of the
accident.

At last, if you master the subject, do you really think that a grounding
system, as best it could be as the advice provided by PolyPhaser for
example, will never protect you against a direct strike on your antenna or
on the house lightning conductor
Why ?

All this will help me to conclude the article dealing with this matter :
http://www.astrosurf.com/lombry/qsl-...protection.htm

Thanks in advance

NB. Answer preferably through these forums to please everybody.

Thierry
ON4SKY

I believe lightning struck my chimney and took out the lawn sprinkler
control system and a couple of appliances. After a while I found the
reason. The clamp on the ground rod for the house ground wire had
disintegrated and I think the disintigration was caused by galvanic action.
I just replaced with awhat I thought was a better one and the new one didn't
corrode.
73
hank wd5jfr
"Thierry" To answer me in private use
http://www.astrosurf.com/lombry/post.htm wrote in message
...
Hi,

Was your house/shack stroken by Thor's hammer, I mean a lightning recently
?
I am interested in your experience...

If your installaiton was damaged by a strike event, I would like to now if
:
- you used a central ground point bonded to an external grounding system,
as
well as the home ground.
- you left some gears switched on during the strike event
- you left the TX switched on and the coaxial plugged without protection
- you installed or not lightning controllers in your electric distribution
panel
- you had installed another protection
- you swicthed off and unplugged all devices
- you think that the energy came back via the grounding network (probably
dut to a difference of potential in a device)

Tell me only in a few words what was the most probable cause of the
accident.

At last, if you master the subject, do you really think that a grounding
system, as best it could be as the advice provided by PolyPhaser for
example, will never protect you against a direct strike on your antenna or
on the house lightning conductor
Why ?

All this will help me to conclude the article dealing with this matter :
http://www.astrosurf.com/lombry/qsl-...protection.htm

Thanks in advance

NB. Answer preferably through these forums to please everybody.

Thierry
ON4SKY

"Let us spray"?

"Henry Kolesnik" wrote in message
...
I believe lightning struck my chimney and took out the lawn sprinkler
control system and a couple of appliances.

Safe Breaker wrote:
On Sun, 25 Jan 2004 15:49:25 -0000, "Airy R. Bean"
wrote:

"Let us spray"?


Face it, if wit was sh*t you'd be constipated.

I think you're being a bit harsh on Airy

--
David

"Henry Kolesnik" wrote in message
...
I believe lightning struck my chimney and took out the lawn sprinkler
control system and a couple of appliances. After a while I found the
reason. The clamp on the ground rod for the house ground wire had
disintegrated and I think the disintigration was caused by galvanic
action.
I just replaced with awhat I thought was a better one and the new one
didn't
corrode.

Indeed, without care the binding between two metals is always "at risk".
Polyphaser and other grounding kit manufacturers provide products to prevent
this kind of corrosion, including coating for anchor guys (like Anchor
Guard).

Thierry


73
hank wd5jfr
"Thierry" To answer me in private use
http://www.astrosurf.com/lombry/post.htm wrote in message
...
Hi,

Was your house/shack stroken by Thor's hammer, I mean a lightning
recently
?
I am interested in your experience...

If your installaiton was damaged by a strike event, I would like to now
if
:
- you used a central ground point bonded to an external grounding
system,
as
well as the home ground.
- you left some gears switched on during the strike event
- you left the TX switched on and the coaxial plugged without protection
- you installed or not lightning controllers in your electric
distribution
panel
- you had installed another protection
- you swicthed off and unplugged all devices
- you think that the energy came back via the grounding network
(probably
dut to a difference of potential in a device)

Tell me only in a few words what was the most probable cause of the
accident.

At last, if you master the subject, do you really think that a grounding
system, as best it could be as the advice provided by PolyPhaser for
example, will never protect you against a direct strike on your antenna
or
on the house lightning conductor
Why ?

All this will help me to conclude the article dealing with this matter :
http://www.astrosurf.com/lombry/qsl-...protection.htm

Thanks in advance

NB. Answer preferably through these forums to please everybody.

Thierry
ON4SKY

The CBer reveals herself every time that she opens her mouth....

"Safe Breaker" wrote in message
...

Face it, if wit was sh*t you'd be constipated.

Station grounded to central ground (10 foot ground rod in Georgia Clay tied
to 60 radials each 60 feet long 1" below the surface put in before the house
was built.)

Power unplugged all antennas grounded via the antenna switch.

1/2 of G5RV up 40 feet, antenna vaporized with only bits and pieces found,
the other half undamaged. Came in via powerlines and antenna. All electronic
devices in the house destroyed

All antennas on 80 foot tower were untouched.

main stroke followed the powerlines in the attic. The overpressure blew
vinyl siding off the house.

In the hamshack the voltage exited the coax from a coiled section burning
the rug. TS-830 and 440 destroyed in spite of being unplugged. 6 foot color
TV, electronic air cleaner, VCR etc all destroyed. The only electronic
survivor was a bedside GE $10 radio alarm clock.

This is a rural setting on 29 acres. Closest house 1/2 mile away. All
utilities underground from the road to the house. Closest overhead utilities
are 1600 feet away.




"Thierry" To answer me in private use
http://www.astrosurf.com/lombry/post.htm wrote in message
...
Hi,

Was your house/shack stroken by Thor's hammer, I mean a lightning recently
?
I am interested in your experience...

"Thierry" To answer me in private use http://www.astrosurf.com/lombry/post.htm wrote in message ...
Hi,

Was your house/shack stroken by Thor's hammer, I mean a lightning recently ?

My mast has been struck twice in the last 4 years.
I am interested in your experience...

If your installaiton was damaged by a strike event, I would like to now if :
- you used a central ground point bonded to an external grounding system, as
well as the home ground.

My mast is the central ground point. It's tied into to water pipe,
which is about 2 ft away, and also tied into my "ground window"
outside the shack. All the ground here is tied together, and at the
same potential. The water pipe is iron, not pvc.

- you left some gears switched on during the strike event

Gears???? No compute...

- you left the TX switched on and the coaxial plugged without protection

Yes. So was my computer and monitor. Neither flinched at all.
- you installed or not lightning controllers in your electric distribution
panel

No.
- you had installed another protection
No.
- you swicthed off and unplugged all devices
Yes. But to my radios only. IE: rig and amp unplugged from the wall.
Phone line to the computer unplugged. All the other stuff in the
house/room was left on and plugged in.
My computer was on, as was the TV in the room, which is on cable.

- you think that the energy came back via the grounding network (probably
dut to a difference of potential in a device)

Most all of the strike energy went straight to ground via the mast I'm
fairly sure.
I had no damage to anything anywhere. The only thing is did was blow a
hole in my electrical tape "water cap" on the top of the mast. Also
made the slightest arc spot on the end of the mast. You would have to
look hard to see it.

Tell me only in a few words what was the most probable cause of the
accident.

Accident? What accident? The lightning strike did exactly what I was
intending/hoping it would do.

At last, if you master the subject, do you really think that a grounding
system, as best it could be as the advice provided by PolyPhaser for
example, will never protect you against a direct strike on your antenna or
on the house lightning conductor
Why ?

You can protect from a direct strike. The level of protection will
depend on the clamping voltage of the gas tube, or whatever you use.
The higher power gas tubes clamp at a higher voltage. If you want max
protection use a low power protector. But I'm too paranoid to operate
during lightning. I see no point anyway, being the static would be a
mess... I totally unhook and ground all antennas. Also, my mast is
much most likely to attract a strike rather than my antennas
themselves. They just float along for the ride. My coaxes all run all
the way down to the ground. The mast acts as a lightning rod in my
case. I was sitting 15 feet away from my mast when it struck mine. In
reality, it's kind of a non event..It's so quick , it's over before
you realize what happened. The strike itself is pretty quiet if you
have a low resistance connection like a well grounded mast. About like
throwing a lightbulb on the ground and breaking it. Only the sonic
boom overhead is loud. You also hear a click in your auditory nerves
when you are that close. Lightning has also hit tall trees in our yard
in that time period. The tree in the front yard was nailed a few
months ago. MK

Mark Keith . ..

^ - you left some gears switched on during the strike event
^
^ Gears???? No compute...

"Gear", not "gears". "Gear" is both singular and plural without the
apostrophe but that sense doesn't translate well. He means "equipment".

Frank

Thierry wrote:
"I am interested in your experience."

My electric utility company`s service standards book says:

"National Electrical Code (N.E.C.) requires grounding to a "metallic
underground water piping system" if available. Acceptable alternatives
include a driven ground rod which is preferred by your company
regardless of the type of grounding used. N.E.C. requires that the
"interior metallic cold water piping system" be bonded to it."

My home installation has metallic water piping inside and outside the
house. A heavy cable connects cold water pipimg to the electrical
service entrance and to an external ground rod.

Telephone and TV cables are bonded to the electrical service ground.
This is done to lessen the possibility of a potential difference between
the various services.

Nevertheless, I had a combination clock radio telephone which was burnt
by a lightning strike. Enough potential difference was generated
between the phone wiring and powerline wiring inside the house to fry
the clock radio telephone which was at the opposite end of the house
from the service entrance where services share a common ground point. It
is a wood frame house.

There was no protection at the clock radio telephone. Had low-pass
filters with voltage-limiting on electrical and telephone outlets been
installed and had they shared a common ground connection at the
apparatus, it is likely no damage would have occurred. I`ve used MOV`s
for power line surge protection with success against common-mode and
differential-mode surges. Carbons and gas tubes are suitable for phone
lines.

I worked many years in broadcast stations, medium wave and short wave.
Never saw a dime`s worth of lightning damage in the well protected
stations in which I worked.

I worked more decades with land/mobile and microwave radios and found
ways to protect these too, mostly by using the same techniques already
perfected in broadcasting. No. We did not use 120 radials for our VHF,
UHF, and microwave towers, but we did use a separate ground rod en each
tower leg. This was lightning protection. We also used closed circuit
antennas grounded at the tops of the towers. Coax rejects common-mode
lightning energy. We used zero protection across coax and never had a
burnt transistor receiver front-end.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZi