[160m] ESD/Lighting Protection

[KD7JYK]

Actually I intedt to put Polyphasers and ground the heck out of everything.
My concern is if I manage to get a fourty foot mast up it will be the
highest metal obeject in several tens of square miles.  We have had several
strikes in the neighborhood, I've just been lucky so far.  The lightning rod
would act as a drain for my property and give a strike a path should one
actually hit.

Another concern is ESD, Electro Static Discharge.  I had a six foot pipe
with a 2m 5/8 wave whip on top.  I disconnected the co-ax from the radio
during a sand storm but there was enough of a charge generated that a bush
of corona three inches long shot out of the end of the cable into my
computer and packet modem.

What kind of problems are created with 500' of wire running right up the
rear of a radio or will a polyphaser handle a constant discharge for hours?
Of course the smart thing to do is unplug the radio but what if you're out
for the afternoon?

Kurt

Rosetta Proving Ground, Nevada
Hell's Laboratory