On Wed, 28 Apr 2010, Chuck Kelsey wrote: > My Dad used to have a small tower for his TV antenna. One Christmas we > strung Christmas lights up the thing and they got left there for a > couple years. All the coloring wore off, leaving bare bulbs (the old > outdoor size of years ago). The tower took a direct hit one summer. > Every one of the bulbs ended up with a burned out filament and a large > black spot on the inside of the glass. The antennas were fine, TV was > fine, but the scanner (with antenna on the tower) didn't make it. Took > all summer for the grass to start growing again under the tower. > Chuck WB2EDV
That makes me think a bit. If you take and run fluorescent lights all the way up the tower, connected together with short copper jumpers, once the ionization voltage is reached, they will form a large conduction channel to the termination point. It might potentially be a lower resistance than that of the tower, although your neighbors aren't going to like it when The Big Tower lights up because the voltage from ground to the top is enough to bias the lights into operation. If you don't bond it to the tower, you could have fun. If you do bond it, you'll know when the strike hits. On the other hand, if you do get a direct strike, your neighbors will be picking up pieces of glass for months. You will too. =) -- Kris Kirby, KE4AHR Disinformation Analyst
