[Elecraft] [OT] A dumb question about lightning

[Dr. William J. Schmidt]

Even the methods in that book are considered sub-standard by the broadcast industry...  The only think that is a sure bet is to completely disconnect your radio and put it back in the shipping box.


Dr. William J. Schmidt - K9HZ J68HZ 

email:  bill at wjschmidt.com


-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net <elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net> 
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2023 4:14 PM
To: john at kk9a.com
Cc: Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] [OT] A dumb question about lightning


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Welcome to the Bible of grounding.   It’ll take several reads to grasp what you have to do. 

73,
Rick NK7I


> On Jul 28, 2023, at 2:11 PM, john at kk9a.com wrote:
> 
> I would recommend that you follow proper lightning bonding/grounding 
> techniques, these are the only methods that work. My tower has taken a 
> number of lighting strikes. You cannot prevent a lightning strike. 
> Simply disconnecting your feedling will not prevent damage inside your 
> house as the voltage from a strike will be induced into your home's electrical wires.
> 
> John KK9A
> 
> 
> Al Lorona W6LX wrote:
> 
> 
> Please don't laugh at me; I'm a transplant from a region of the 
> country with essentially no lightning to a region where you have to 
> worry about it quite a bit.
> 
> We had a doozy of a storm last night, with lots of lightning overhead. 
> I felt like a sitting duck, even though I had grounded both sides of 
> the balanced feedline of the antenna, switched the antenna switch to 
> the middle
> (grounded) position, and even disconnected the coax leading to the 
> K3's rear-panel antenna port.
> 
> Whenever lightning happens, I always wonder if it really is in fact 
> better to ground everything. Because, doesn't that essentially make a 
> lightning rod of the antenna? If I simply disconnected the antenna and 
> left it floating, wouldn't it be less likely to attract a lightning bolt?
> 
> I'm of the belief that it's better to try to avoid a direct hit than 
> to attract one and trust your grounding system to do its thing. I'm of 
> the belief that no grounding system is perfectly effective.
> 
> Al  W6LX/4
> 
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