[Elecraft] A dumb question about lightning

[Bill Frantz]

While you are trying to make sense of the best practices lightning protection documents:

  N0AX’s ARRL book “Grounding and Bonding for the Radio Amateur”

  Motorola’s STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES FOR COMMUNICATION SITES
  https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/Lands_ROW_Motorola_R56_2005_manual.pdf

  K9YC’s Power, Grounding, Bonding, and Audio for Ham Radio.
  http://k9yc.com/GroundingAndAudio.pdf

There are a few items of AC electrical behavior to keep in mind:

Lightning is produced by a giant spark-gap transmitter. It is a VERY broad RF signal centered at about 1 MHz.

There’s no such thing as a wire at RF, they are all transmission lines. Everything has both inductance and capacitance. These inductances will affect the way grounding lines work.

Conductors at RF exhibit what is called the surface effect, where the current is limited to the surface of the conductor. This is why 50cm (2 inch) wide copper leads, with their large surface area, are recommended. (Note that the surface effect is also important for AC power distribution systems at 50 or 60 Hz.)

Proper bonding in the station can make all the equipment “float” at the same voltage above the local soil. If no current flows through the equipment, it will not be damaged.

73 Bill AE6JV