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

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From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of J Ferguson via ADXA <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2025 10:22:50 AM
To: Jussi Eloranta <[email protected]>
Cc: ADXA <[email protected]>
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 <[email protected]> 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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