I've had serious damage from lighting over the years and some of you will remember some of my stores.... holes in the wall, busted walls sheetrock, ceiling caving in and endless equipment damage.
I have a massive ground system under these towers. Miles of wire, yet sometimes damage from a direct hit is hard to mitigate.
I recall one time when lightning hit a tree just on the other side of the wall in the radio room. I suspect it hit one ofthe towers, too. The 200 ft tower is lightning rod. Anyway, I had a pole peg transformer in one of my homemade power supplies sitting against the wall, so there was probably 8 feet separating the transformer and the tree. Everything was disconnected yet the induced voltage on that pole peg caused an explosion in the radio room. Arcs everywhere.
I disconnect every line when a storm is coming. Nothing is connected, not even the ground. Nothing. Back in the day with tube radios, you could keep the ground connected but not today with these fancy radios. My radios are as if they are sitting in the floor in the middle of the room with nothing connected to them.
All coax lines and rotor cables, disconnected, all cables to radios, amps, accessories, all disconnected and nothing attached. And that goes for the AC lines, too. Living at the end of a distribution line invites the stuff to travel to a termination. I've had AC outlets blown to bits leaving a hole in the wall.
Disconnect everything!
73,
Rick - K5UR