[Elecraft] Avoiding costly lightning damage to your radios gear

[John K9UWA]

In the fall of 1988 I installed a 160 foot tower. I already had a 120 foot tower and 
an 88 foot tower In the spring of 1989 the tall tower was hit by a direct hit and it 
was about 10K to repair all the damage. My homeowners insurance company was 
not at all impressed. I was given Assigned Risk Homeowners insurance and they 
also told me. You have 30 days to either get all those antennas and towers on the 
ground or else install a "Commercial Grounding System" or else your insurance is 
cancelled. At that time I am sure the mortgage company woudn't have been at all 
impressed. 

During the summer of 1989 I installed. 100 Ground Rods some in a radial pattern 
away from the towers and some in a perimeter ground around the house. The 
Radial pattern from the towers is in excess of 1/3rd the total height of the tall 
tower. ground rods are all 16 feet apart. All are connected by 3/8" inside diameter 
copper tubing silver soldered to the ground rods. A total of about 1200 feet of 
copper tubing.  I installed many Polyphaser protection devices on coax cable lines 
Rotors 5 of them on the three towers relay boxes to switch the 30 some yagi 
antennas on the towers and wire low band antennas. Hundreds of wires 
connecting all the relay switchboxes that select whatever antenna configuration 
you might want. In addition to all of the above we have Whole House Protection 
device on the main breaker box. And an additional one on a Sub Breaker box that 
is in the hamshack room. All devices in the hamshack have their own grounding 
strap that is connected directly to the ground strap a 2 inch wide copper strap 
along the backside of the table that has the equipment on it. As a last line of 
defense each Band Coax that enters the hamshack room has one of MFJ's Arc 
Plug switches and I have never blown any of the arc plugs. Because I am in 
Florida for 6 months of the year and the station is in Northern Indiana I operate it 
remotely while in Florida.

 I am the lightning rod for the entire neighborhood. I am within a few feet of being 
the highest point in the county. 

The tall tower has had MANY direct hits since installing the commercial style 
ground system in 1989. I had a Hit Counter on the tower for a few years until I 
broke it one day while climbing on the tower. I think the counter had over 100 hits 
registered. To Date ZERO DAMAGE to anything in the house or on the towers. 
That is ZERO DAMAGE. A great big THANK YOU to the guys at Polyphaser for 
all the advice as to what to install and where to install it. 

I do have to retract one portion of the above statement. Once after a major hit the 
whole house protector on the main breaker box was smoking after the hit. Wife 
came into the shack and said that box on the breaker box is smoking. I told Jean 
that the box wasn't old enough to smoke. She didn't see the humor in that one. I 
called Polyphaser on the phone and the nice lady asked me one question. Was 
anything in the house damaged other than the whole house protector? I answered 
NO everything in the house and on the towers is all OK. I then asked her to 
overnite me a replacement box since it was at that time over 10 years old and 
finally gave its little life to allow the rest of the house ZERO DAMAGE. We were 
into our normal major spring time storm season. New Whole House protector  
arrived and was installed the next day. 

And to date Twenty Nine years later 
ZERO DAMAGE Again a big thank you to Polyphaser Turn BLITZ into BLISS. 

So YES a Tower can be protected from damage. When the TV stations and Radio 
station towers get hit they don't even go off air. Neither does my Ham Station. 

Copy the URL below into your favorite browser for a you tube video of my  QTH. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXvRrummVFY

The Video was made while we were installing a new low band receive antenna at 
150 foot level on the tower. Drone and GoPro headband cameras. Yes that crane 
would do 275 feet from it's base. Yes that is ME in the Man Cage along with Dan 
one of the Fruchey Iron workers. I wearing the GoPro headband camera and my 
friend Dino Raptis KR9V operating his Drone. Thanks to Dino KR9V as all the 
video equipment is his and his editing to produce the You Tube Video

73
John k9uwa
John Goller, K9UWA & Jean Goller, N9PXF 
Antique Radio Restorations
k9uwa at arrl.net
Visit our Web Site at:
http://www.JohnJeanAntiqueRadio.com
4836 Ranch Road
Leo, IN 46765
USA
1-260-637-6426