[K3PZN-List] Lightning, antennas, and coax

[Philip Karras]

Jim,
Continuing a bit more, your point about putting the end of you coax in a jar is IMHO not at all helpful or safe. If lightning will come down from the sky traveling thousands of feet to get to a good point of massed opposite charge and will travel through windows, bricks, wood, whatever is in the way, what on earth good will a jar do if the coax is leading close to a mass of opposite charge but can't help dissipate it due to a lack of real connection? All you're doing is shortening the length of air the cloud charge has to travel in order to get to the charge in the ground and if the antenna is the easiest path to the opposite charge the jar will simply shatter and the connection will be made by the ionization of the air at the end of the coax to that opposite charge.

Far better to allow the antenna to help dissipate the charge through a good ground connection than to hold it tantalizingly close to the charge but not connected to it which simply helps shorten the path to the charge for the lightning strike.

In a sense it's like building up a static charge on your finger and getting it closer and closer to a grounding point to see when the spark will jump from finger to grounding point.

I for one would NOT want to be anywhere near that jar if a lightning bolt hit the antenna connected to that coax!

Again, that's my analysis and story and I will continue to stick to it like a good grounding connection. ;)
 
73 de KE3FL,
Phil