Agreed. And your grounding system alone certainly cost several
thousand dollars more than most ham stations.
I will also add, if your ground system, implementation and methods do
not comply with NEC, in the event of any loss, your insurance company
can simply say "it has been nice doing business with you. Your coverage
is hear by CANCELED".
Although living TN, my QTH is 500 ft above average terrain out to 35
miles. I understand living on a hill, grounding and lightning. Do it
correct to minimize damage. Do it wrong or incomplete and expect to
encounter a loss, up to and even the house, and hopefully no loss of life.
73
Bob, K4TAX
On 10/30/2018 11:17 AM, John K9UWA wrote:
In the fall of 1988 I installed a 160 foot tower. I already had a 120 foot
tower and
an 88 foot tower In the spring of 1989 the tall tower was hit by a direct hit
and it
was about 10K to repair all the damage. My homeowners insurance company was
not at all impressed. I was given Assigned Risk Homeowners insurance and they
also told me. You have 30 days to either get all those antennas and towers on
the
ground or else install a "Commercial Grounding System" or else your insurance is
cancelled. At that time I am sure the mortgage company woudn't have been at all
impressed.
During the summer of 1989 I installed. 100 Ground Rods some in a radial pattern
away from the towers and some in a perimeter ground around the house. The
Radial pattern from the towers is in excess of 1/3rd the total height of the
tall
tower. ground rods are all 16 feet apart. All are connected by 3/8" inside
diameter
copper tubing silver soldered to the ground rods. A total of about 1200 feet of
copper tubing. I installed many Polyphaser protection devices on coax cable
lines
Rotors 5 of them on the three towers relay boxes to switch the 30 some yagi
antennas on the towers and wire low band antennas. Hundreds of wires
connecting all the relay switchboxes that select whatever antenna configuration
you might want. In addition to all of the above we have Whole House Protection
device on the main breaker box. And an additional one on a Sub Breaker box that
is in the hamshack room. All devices in the hamshack have their own grounding
strap that is connected directly to the ground strap a 2 inch wide copper strap
along the backside of the table that has the equipment on it. As a last line of
defense each Band Coax that enters the hamshack room has one of MFJ's Arc
Plug switches and I have never blown any of the arc plugs. Because I am in
Florida for 6 months of the year and the station is in Northern Indiana I
operate it
remotely while in Florida.
I am the lightning rod for the entire neighborhood. I am within a few feet of
being
the highest point in the county.
The tall tower has had MANY direct hits since installing the commercial style
ground system in 1989. I had a Hit Counter on the tower for a few years until I
broke it one day while climbing on the tower. I think the counter had over 100
hits
registered. To Date ZERO DAMAGE to anything in the house or on the towers.
That is ZERO DAMAGE. A great big THANK YOU to the guys at Polyphaser for
all the advice as to what to install and where to install it.
I do have to retract one portion of the above statement. Once after a major hit
the
whole house protector on the main breaker box was smoking after the hit. Wife
came into the shack and said that box on the breaker box is smoking. I told Jean
that the box wasn't old enough to smoke. She didn't see the humor in that one. I
called Polyphaser on the phone and the nice lady asked me one question. Was
anything in the house damaged other than the whole house protector? I answered
NO everything in the house and on the towers is all OK. I then asked her to
overnite me a replacement box since it was at that time over 10 years old and
finally gave its little life to allow the rest of the house ZERO DAMAGE. We were
into our normal major spring time storm season. New Whole House protector
arrived and was installed the next day.
And to date Twenty Nine years later
ZERO DAMAGE Again a big thank you to Polyphaser Turn BLITZ into BLISS.
So YES a Tower can be protected from damage. When the TV stations and Radio
station towers get hit they don't even go off air. Neither does my Ham Station.
Copy the URL below into your favorite browser for a you tube video of my QTH.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXvRrummVFY
The Video was made while we were installing a new low band receive antenna at
150 foot level on the tower. Drone and GoPro headband cameras. Yes that crane
would do 275 feet from it's base. Yes that is ME in the Man Cage along with Dan
one of the Fruchey Iron workers. I wearing the GoPro headband camera and my
friend Dino Raptis KR9V operating his Drone. Thanks to Dino KR9V as all the
video equipment is his and his editing to produce the You Tube Video
73
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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