Greetings,
We get a fair bit of lightning here in Texas. I'm a transplant from
nearly lightning free California, so I had to go thru an expensive
period of education. A couple quick thoughts:
Nothing will save you from a direct strike. At least nothing you can
likely afford. You're more likely to get clobbered by a surge from
the grid, or induced voltage from a nearby strike.
Use the "box method". Draw a diagram of your equipment, then draw a
large box around it. Any wire that enters or leaves the box requires
some kind of protection device. In the case of a GPS antenna, likely
a relatively expensive gas discharge tube bonded to a properly
installed ground rod by a short length of heavy copper braid.
That said, I still can't bring myself to leave my HF radio gear
connected to an antenna all the time. I unplug mine when not in use
and place the lead in a stoneware jar on the floor of my garage.
Rob
KC6OOM/5
On Sep 26, 2009, at 4:37 AM, Jim Palfreyman wrote:
Hi All,
I live in Hobart, Tasmania which has low level of thunderstorms -
average 2 thunder-days a year. However recently we've had a few and
I've begun to think about my GPS antenna on the roof on top of my TV
antenna.
A bolt on that could take out not only my plasma tv but potentially an
awful lot of time equipment that is precious to me.
For those of you in lightning prone areas, what precautions have
you taken?
Regards,
Jim
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