[Elecraft] [OT] A dumb question about lightning

[David Decoons]

Just take note the link to the R56 manual is for a manual from 2005. Most of the principals have not changed but there have been changes to it over the last 18 years. (“Lessons learned” applied).

73
Dave wo2x (ex Motorolan)

Sent from my iPad

> On Jul 29, 2023, at 10:32 AM, Alan Bloom <n1al at sonic.net> wrote:
> 
> Hi Al,
> 
> The "Bible" on this subject that has been used for many years by the telecommunications industry is Motorola's "R56, Standards and Guidelines for Communications Sites":
> 
> https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/Lands_ROW_Motorola_R56_2005_manual.pdf
> 
> It's kind of complicated, but it's what you have to do if you really want to protect your site.  Of special interest are Chapter 4 "External Grounding (Earthing)", Chapter 5 "Internal Grounding (Earthing)", and Chapter 7 "Surge Protective Devices".
> 
> Alan N1AL
> 
> 
>> On 7/28/2023 10:31 PM, Al Lorona 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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