[Antennas] Dumb question?

[bonddaleena at aol.com]

Hi, here is a question I would like to put before the list....

I have just finished getting my 2 - 95 foot towers up. They are well 
engineered and guyed VERY well with 1/4" EHS guy wire.
The towers are well grounded with low imped copper strap from each leg 
to a system of 8' ground rods all interconnected.
I have had tall towers like this at my last 4 QTHs and never had a 
problem with lightning DIRECTLY hitting a tower. I have had some 'near 
misses' which have taken out several mast mounted VHF and UHF GaaSFET 
preamps , until I learned how to protect them.

However, I was watching a special last night on Ben Franklin and they 
went into great detail about how he invented the 'lightning rod' 
concept.
I have read extensively about this subject, but still have this 
question on my shrinking mind:

Since I leave near the thunderstorm capitol of the USA (Florida), would 
I gain any safety by installing a very pointed conductor at the very 
top of my tower's mast?

One tower will have a pair of 432 MHz long yagis at 115'. They will be 
fed with 7/8" CATV hardline and have the preamp near the rotor.
I have ground straps to bypass the rotor. The antennas are all at DC 
ground, so there would be a direct path to ground for everything on the 
tower.

My feeling is that by placing a sharply pointed 'tip' to the top of the 
mast will help dissipate a charge before it builds to strike potential. 
As you are aware, this is how Ben's stuff works. Lightning rods cannot 
withstand a direct 'hit'. They are for dissipation purposes.

OR, am I inviting a strike with the pointy rod????

I've not seen this topic discussed before.

Thank you in advance.

ron
N4UE