After 40 years in South Florida (lightning capital of the US) in a 24/7 business with multiple towers from 50' to 1,000' , my attack for protection from lightning was to have a massive ground system with extremely low impedance as well as extremely low resistance in the ground system. A ground wire that has a bend in it has impedance! A 10' rod is not a ground for lighting. A ring with many rods works much better. Use a "star" system to interconnect the equipment; although I believe the cell industry has had very good success with "Ring-Halo" ground systems. Once that is done then consider a Dissipation Array. I believe that they reduced our exposure to damage considerably.
Signal cables should be appropriately protected if they span the ground system. Almost all signal wire do span the ground system in one way or other. At ham power levels that would include the RF as well as control & audio. When you see multiple strikes hit a tower and do not have to fix anything - it is a good feeling to know that it all got to the earth without stopping in any of the equipment. My 2 cents George AI4VZ ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
