[Elecraft] Elecraft Digest, Vol 196, Issue 17 - Lightning

[Bill Frantz]

Our family house a mile up the hill, and my radio shack, has 
lightning rods. I've been in buildings with lightning rods two 
or three times when they were struck by lightning. Nothing 
inside was harmed, but the noise was incredible.

What I don't know is the relation between radio and other 
electronic equipment and a lightning rod installation. For 
example, do you bond the radio grounds to the lightning rod 
grounds? At ground level, or anywhere along the wire?

Too bad I can't find my copy of N0AX's book on the subject. Need 
to do more digging.

73 Bill AE6JV

On 8/17/20 at 7:59 AM, Lyn at LNAINC.com (Lyn Norstad) wrote:

>FWIW, I have never had lightning come in on power, phone, cable or anything
>else like that.  All our services are underground for miles prior to
>reaching our house, and that probably helps.
>
>We DID have a direct lightning strike on the house several years ago.  It
>struck an attic fan on the roof and followed the electrical wiring to the
>boxes in the basement, branching out wherever it could and knocking out the
>whole electrical system.  In the process, as it blew up boxes and panels, it
>blew out a chunk of PVC carrying water from the well into the pressure tank.
>And it blew the tank.
>
>It also started a small fire in the attic (insulation), but that didn't do
>too much since the large hole in the roof allowed rain to come in for about
>5 hours before we returned home from work. The rain, however, caused
>sheet-rocked ceilings (especially over the two-story foyer) to sag.  And of
>course with no power, the sump pump was out and the basement flooded (to a
>depth of about 6 inches until I could run a line from the neighbor's house).
>
>The EMP (or something ...) was apparently strong enough to even knock out
>wall clocks that were battery operated.  At our Fire Dept. station (about 2
>miles away), the Chief said it sounded like a bomb went off.  We were 30
>miles away at the time, but our two little kitties were in the basement and
>when I let them out 5 hours later, their fur was still standing on end.
>
>So this is a problem when living in the country where houses are far apart,
>there are no power lines to "catch" the lightning and the only physical
>connection into the ground of any significance is a PVC pipe going to the
>well (which was also blown out thru the wiring).  The lightning actually
>exited the house on the natural gas line. The damage was extensive, and we
>had to evacuate for 5 weeks.  It was another 4 months or so before
>everything was completed (we did some upgrades in the process). Since then,
>I have had a lightning protection system professionally installed under the
>direction of an engineer who guesstimated our strike at 50,000 amps.
>
>I had no antennas of any sort at the time, but I do now and have protected
>it as best I know (see box on QRZ page).
----------------------------------------------------
Bill Frantz        | Art is how we decorate space,
408-348-7900       | music is how we decorate time.
www.pwpconsult.com |          -Jean-Michel Basquiat