[ADXA] Antennas & lightning

Sun Jul 13 12:44:26 EDT 2025

I agree with EJ.  While I have never had lightning damage in my amateur 
career, I know it can happen.  I learned to fly in Orlando and the NWS 
says the area between Orlando and Tampa produces more, powerful 
thunderstorms than any place in the US.  So, I was enlightened early.  
Then my brother was playing in a foursome at the Orlando Country Club 
and sought shelter in a concrete block building on the fairway when a 
storm came up.  Lightning struck a pine tree next the shelter, blew a 
hole about 36" in diameter in the block, struck the foursome, killed 
one, put another one in a coma, my brother had burns on his arms, 
couldn't walk and crawled a quarter of a mile to the clubhouse for 
help.  All documented in the Orlando Sentinel.

I disconnect everything.  Coax, power plugs, Ethernet cables. I'm on the 
second floor of my house so no ground to disconnect. However, I had a 
friend in Memphis who had everything disconnected but his ground and got 
a nearby strike that fried the one radio that was connected to earth.  
It seem like it got into his ground cabling via another location and 
traveled all the way around the house and did him in.

Another time, I was coming home from Huntsville with a friend and there 
were serious thunderstorms in the Memphis area.  When we got to his 
house, his Diamond vertical on the top of his mast had disappeared.  The 
water meter cover was blown from its fitting and in the middle of the 
yard.  When we went in the house, the water in his toilets was black.  
The story goes downhill from there.

Good luck with whatever plan you come up with and make sure you have 
good insurance in case you screw up.  I do.  (Both screw up and have 
good insurance)

73,

Steve, N4JQQ

On 7/13/2025 10:29 AM, EJ Jones wrote:
> Have a good trip!
>
> I disconnect everything when weather is in the area. That includes 
> coaxes, rotor cables, any cables to control boxes, such as antenna, 
> relays, or four square boxes. I’ve gone wireless on my Internet 
> because I had problems of lightning getting in on the network cable. 
>  Of course I disconnect all power plugs from the wall.
>
> Some people even disconnect the ground from their radios
>
> The ARRL grounding book is a great reference.
> EJ
>
> Get Outlook for iOS <https://aka.ms/o0ukef>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net <adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net> on 
> behalf of J Ferguson via ADXA <adxa at mailman.qth.net>
> *Sent:* Sunday, July 13, 2025 10:22:50 AM
> *To:* Jussi Eloranta <eloranta at aa6kj.hopto.org>
> *Cc:* ADXA <adxa at mailman.qth.net>
> *Subject:* Re: [ADXA] Antennas & lightning
> Jussi,
>
> Lighting is a fickle beast. The energy potential in lighting far 
> exceeds the rated handling capability of polypahsers, and despite our 
> best efforts to ground and control the path of a strike the risk of it 
> finding it’s way to my equipment is too great.
> I always disconnect my attendants and radios (when I am in a position 
> to do so) to reduce the likelihood of a direct of nearby strike 
> causing equipment damage. My antenna coax is place the open end in 
> plastic lawn and garden waterproof extension cord covers when 
> disconnected. This provides me (perhaps a false sense of security) 
> with trying to make sure the antenna and coax being in a float state 
> for the energy of a strike to travel. It also helps to keep me from 
> having the coax accidentally being kicked or moved and creating a 
> possible ground path.
>
> What I use for covering the coax: 
> https://www.lowes.com/pd/Twist-and-Seal-0-5-ft-Plastic-Cord-Organizer/1000132801
>
> Sounds like your shack is outside your home, have you thought about 
> setting up a remote disconnect system?
>
> Others thought’s on this topic?
>
> 73,
> J Ferguson
> N5LKE
>
>> On Jul 13, 2025, at 9:58 AM, Jussi Eloranta 
>> <eloranta at aa6kj.hopto.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> The weather has been pretty rough at least here in the NE corner. 
>> Lightning on and off on almost all days. I have been running back and 
>> forth between the house and the shack disconnecting and reconnecting 
>> antennas & power. The weather forecasts have been pretty useless with 
>> these storms. They appear quickly and are gone quickly.
>>
>> My question is as follows. With proper grounding and polyphasers on 
>> coaxes (+ surge protectors on power), do you guys disconnect antennas 
>> & power during storms? In CA lightning is rather rare and this was 
>> not an issue over there. I feel that here I have the radios 
>> disconnected most of the time! And my K4 died mysteriously during a 
>> recent storm with only the ground connected. It is possible that 
>> lightning can get in through the ground too... Fortunately Elecraft 
>> was pretty quick to fix it.
>>
>> Jussi (aa6kj)
>>
>> PS. I am headed to Finland to attend the annual SRAL summer meeting. 
>> Hopefully the weather is calmer there... Great to see some old 
>> friends over there.
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