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
>
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