John, Dick, Dale, Et Al, Very interesting discussion! I'm sure this has come up before: Just one question: Where would one find good information on-line about proper grounding.
Thanks! Regards, kurtt Kurt Pawlikowski The Pinrod Corporation ku...@pinrod.com (773) 284-9500 http://pinrod.com On 4/13/2011 00:24, John K9UWA wrote: > As Dale stated Polyphaser is the way to go guys. > > As to the RISK. I live in Northern Indiana where thunder and lightning are > common many times per year. I have three > towers with the top antenna at 175 foot level. Trees here barely make it to > 70 feet. So I am IT. There is no DISCONNECT > during such storms. If I ever disconnected this station it would take a > couple weeks to do so. Longer to reconnect it. 5 rotors on the > three towers. Twenty Aluminum Yagi antennas for 40-10 meters plus numerous > wire antennas. Relay control lines to switch all this > stuff. > > After a rather nasty strike back in 1988 when I first installed a good share > of this stuff. Insurance claim was close to 10K. Insurance > company said: We don't want you. We did find an Assigned Risk Company who > took us. They said 90 days to either get all that > stuff on the ground or install a commercial ground system. > > Yes its lots of work and no its not cheap but let me tell you it does WORK. > As Dale stated the Tower has been direct hit many > times since 1988. Nothing is ever disconnected. Zero Damage has happened. Yes > there are 100 ground rods buried in my yard. > Yes they are connected by 1200 feet of copper 3/8" ID Tubing. It has a lower > inductance per foot than 2 inch wide copper strap. > Plus its cheaper. Same stuff as used to hook up AC systems with. I thought I > owned STOCK in Polyphaser for a while. > > Contesters maybe used to recognize my callsign K9UWA and today they will > recognize K9NW Mike as he operates the station in > many contests. All with today one little K3 radio. I operate it remotely > during the winters from Florida myself. > > so YES you can protect your whole station if you are willing to spend a > little money and do a little WORK. Certainly beats the > alternative of trying to find all the things that are messed up after Mother > Nature takes its course. The expense really isn't all that > great when compared to the cost of the radios, amplifiers, computers, TV > sets, refrigerators and other things that are blown up by > the lightning hits. > > It is a scary spectacular display when the tower is hit just after dark. Once > it happened when we had a birthday party here with > about 40 friends present. About 1/2 of them were Hams. I think some needed a > change of underwear afterwards. > > John k9uwa > John Goller, K9UWA& Jean Goller, N9PXF > Antique Radio Restorations > k9...@arrl.net > Visit our Web Site at: > http://www.JohnJeanAntiqueRadio.com > 4836 Ranch Road > Leo, IN 46765 > USA > 1-260-637-6426 > > ______________________________________________________________ > 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 > ______________________________________________________________ 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