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description and pics of your Lightning protection

CardinalFJ60

Rising Sun Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2005
Messages
2,483
Location
Lafayette
I don't have a permanently mounted antenna and just move my j-pole in and out of the garage when I want to listen or mess around on 2M. I might want to permanently mount an antenna this summer and been reading a lot about lightning protection. what are you guys doing with yours? what considerations? I picked up the ARRL grounding and bonding book, but some of the stuff is sill al little over my head.

do you have pics of ground rods, connections, wire gauge,etc? i've been reading up, now curious what's in practice.


PSA: I used to just unplug my antenna from the radio if I left it outside by accident - but learned that's a big no-no.
 

rover67

Rising Sun Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2007
Messages
9,291
Location
Boulder, Co
Uhhhhhh my j-pole is just bolted to the roof and that's it?

whats this about disconnecting it being a bad idea?
 

DaveInDenver

Rising Sun Ham Guru
Joined
Jun 8, 2006
Messages
12,950
Location
Grand Junction
whats this about disconnecting it being a bad idea?
Disconnecting protects your radio but doesn't solve the lightning rod issue. In a direct strike it probably won't matter and I doubt an insurance company is going to hire a physicist to calculate the infinitesimally small increase in risk having an antenna on the roof made for the lightning to pick your house to blow a hole through over a tree or your neighbor.

But in an indirect strike or even just from static building up an ungrounded antenna can eventually create a serious arc to your radio, wall outlet or appliance, a person or pet. It'll be like walking across a carpet except orders worse. So the concern is real for starting a fire or injuring or killing someone.

You don't need a super extensive system unless you're trying to actually operate in a lightning storm (like commercial stations and even they eventually give up and shut off) but just some way to short the connector center & shield to ground. Like a couple of SO239s mounted to a plate that's grounded to a nearby water pipe. You just want to bleed the charge off and attempt to direct as much current as you can away. Then have a coax switch you flip or just move the coax to ground whenever you're not using the radio.
 
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