[Hallicrafters] Antenna Lightning Protection

[Roger (K8RI)]

Carl wrote:
> Interesting Bob.  Ive been arguing about the Cone concept for decades 
> but the established orthodoxy  rebels violently whenever it is 
> mentioned. Ive left several antenna forums in disgust over this.
>   
I have to agree with you guys.  With the top of my tower ..OK, antennas 
an mast reaching 130' I've seen a LOT of stuff within that cone take 
direct hits. Actually my neighbor and I were standing by the power pole 
with the pig on top (at the end of my driveway with a thunderstorm way 
off in the distance. All of a sudden we bout went deaf when that pole 
took a direct hit. To say we beat a hasty retreat would be an 
understatement.  That is not to say my tower doesn't get hit. As I've 
mentioned before, it has taken an average of 3 verified direct hits a 
year and the las two years were strike free.  OTOH the tower has been 
ignored for power poles, pine trees, houses, ... you name it. One 
multiple strike hit the tower several times, the pole out front, the 
pole and transformer to the north AND a yound pine tree almost a 100 
yards to the East.  The Pine may have been 60 to 70' tall and maybe a 
foot around at the base.  The largest piece left was about 3' long and 
it was found about 40 feet from the base of the tree, stuck into the 
ground over a foot.

Admittedly lightning is unpredictable, but I have my doubts about the 
reliability of the so called "cone of protection.

So far, since finishing the elaborate ground system with 32 or 33 8' 
ground rods, cad welded (TM) to over 600' of bare #2, tied into a single 
point ground I've had no damage even after taking 15 direct hits over 
the years and that is without disconnecting anything. For one it'd too 
difficult to get at the connections.  If I heard a storm coming it'd be 
too late to safely get in there any way. By the time  could get every 
thing disconnected the storm and most dangerous part would be past.

I think one mistake many make it disconnecting cables and not grounding 
them.  Floating coax and ladder line can reach some almost unbelievable 
potentials that can be in the 100's of thousands of volts.  They just 
keep charging until they arc to *something*

73

Roger (K8RI)
> Carl
> KM1H
>
>
>   
>