[Premium-Rx] Lightning hitting your Premium RX

[Gary Mitchelson - N3JPU]

I've got all my radios, including my premium RXs, grounded to a SPG and use
ICE arrestors on the feedlines (ICE suppressors will also drain off static
build-up, they block as well as shunt), all the AC into the shack, and all
rotor and remote antenna switch control lines. This then gets grounded to an
extensive Cadwelded groundrod array. All the feedlines are also grounded at
the tower base and then routed through a 2" grounded EMT conduit.

Have some pictures and links on my website.

Gary Mitchelson
N3JPU Montgomery Co. MD  FM19
http://www.mitchelson.org/ 

-----Original Message-----
From: premium-rx-bounces at ml.skirrow.org
[mailto:premium-rx-bounces at ml.skirrow.org] On Behalf Of Carcia, Francis A HS
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 14:42
To: Premium-Rx (E-mail)
Subject: [Premium-Rx] Lightning hitting your Premium RX


 The bottom line for lightning strikes is you have to provide a low Z to
ground to pass a lot of current or you will generate a lot of voltage.
(Transfer Z). I just did some interesting testing with poorly shielded wire
and observed a lot of induced voltage on the center conductor due to shield
resistance. Ground systems that are not properly bonded to a single point
ground can generate very large voltage offsets. A couple days playing with
our big pulse generator and all the NEC stuff made sense. I remove the
antenna coax with a bird switch when not in the shack. Then I take the coax
off the splitter just in case. no path is much better than a poor path.  fc