[ICOM] Grounding

[Cletus W Whitaker]

de WB2CPN South Central Pennsylvania  2004.05.18

Before this dies, there's one approach that I haven't
seen mentioned.  The power companies and other people
that use massive towers or metalic facilities tend to
prevent a lightning strike rather than take it hard.
You'll see small whiskers on the ends of the extremities,
and small vertical lighting rods on the outer edges of
their hardware.  Some airplanes have short lengths of
what looks like manila rope on the trailing edges of the
wings.  HF transmitter and receiver stations often use
a "horn gap" on the open wire lines.  This gap is
narrow at the bottom, and tapers upward expotentially
until it's about 8 inches apart.  All this is an attempt
to bleed off the charge that's carried by ions or
whatever in the area.  Horn gaps sparkle and snap when
a thunder storm comes near.  The old sailing ships
experienced "St Elmo's Fire" when the oxygen near the
ends of the spars would ionize and radiate light.  So,
maybe we could think on these things when we want to
protect our favorite ICOM equipment.   73  Clete