[Elecraft] Rhombic antenna "gain"

[Lyn Norstad]

Don -

Thanks for your input.  I should have gone into more detail.

We did sustain a direct (yes, direct ...) lightning strike on our house in March, 2012.  A freak storm after a week of 80F+ temps in Chicago.  Lightning struck an attic roof fan, followed the wiring to the basement, and did nearly $100k damage to the house.  I had NO antennas of any type up at that time.

But I did subsequently have lightning protection professionally installed, consisting of a number of lightning rods on the roof all connected inside along the ridge line with 00 gauge stranded copper, running to 10 foot ground rods at both ends of the house.

This wire runs well above the G5RV in the attic ... far enough to protect it and also far enough to 'not' act as a Faraday Cage.

Would another direct strike still cause issues? Possibly, but I feel much more secure with that antenna in a storm than the outside EDZ.

73,
Lyn, WØLEN


-----Original Message-----
From: Don Wilhelm [mailto:donwilh at embarqmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2019 8:51 AM
To: Lyn at LNAINC.com; 'Elecraft Reflector'
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Rhombic antenna "gain"

Lyn,

Hopefully you do not trust that an antenna in the attic will not be 
susceptible to lightning.
I would not use ANY antenna during a thunderstorm.
Shut down the station and ground all feedlines.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 9/14/2019 8:27 AM, Lyn Norstad wrote:

> 
> Prior to the HOA changes, I was limited to a G5RV Jr. in the attic.  It
> worked fairly well, but nothing like this.  I still use it as a backup
> during thunderstorms when the EDZ is disconnected.