Back in the 60's when I was in Wash DC VA suburbs, and pretty green about things electrical, I had a 40m vertical that used the boom/parasitic elements of my tribander as a counterpoise. The shield was at DC ground from the tower. The center conductor was straight from the vertical. I kept it disconnected unless in use. When a thunderstorm approached it would periodically kzap across the PL259, with the frequency increasing as the storm approached, sometimes getting to 5 or 10 kzaps per second. I put it on a panel style DC meter once and got half scale-ish current that varied wildly and increased as storm near, going to peg. I don't recall the sensitivity of the meter.
The top of the vertical was at about 105 feet. It was never struck that I know of. The one close strike was to blow a 15 foot mimosa tree into toothpicks. The tree was twenty feet from either house and about 100 feet away from the tower. The tower extended about a foot and a half into dirt below 5' of concrete for the base, so it was grounded. Along with many other risky episodes in my teens and early twenties, I wonder how I survived being electrocuted, smoked, crushed, burned.... 73, Guy. On Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 11:59 AM, Fred Atchley <hamkt...@att.net> wrote: > Dale, WC7S wrote: > > I disconnect... all the radios. and I have still heard the coax zapping, > during a storm. > > I'm thinking that is enough to cook a junction. > > End snip > > > > I've heard that eerie ticking coming from my "lightening bug arrester". This > ticking increases to a buzz as the storm gets closer. > > I've often wondered why more hams haven't become "SK". First, they construct > this big "lightening catcher" in their yard, and then they run a very good > conductor into the house! Diodes are the least of my worries. > > Speaking of diodes, back in the "good ol daze", vacuum tubes could take a > lot of abuse and "heal up". But solid state devices don't heal up; they > suffer from tunneling, which is permanent. > > The best advice is to disconnect both the antenna and power if you live in > an area where lightening is prevalent. > > Fortunately for me, I moved to S. California to be near the grandkids. > Lightening storms out here are so rare that if you hear a clap of thunder, > you are sure to read about it in paper the next day. > > 73, Fred, K3 2241 > > > > ______________________________________________________________ > 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
