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How do you prevent damage from lightning?

Thank you Captain Kilowatt. The replies with home owners insurance too late. Insurance companies have a tendency of dodging claims like that and call it an act of God. So if your gear is fried and your house may or may not be burnt. The main purpose of the thread was prevention not recovery after getting smoked. As soon as I get the information on the gas discharge surge suppressors that's what I'm hanging on my coax at the feed point. Thanks to you 222DBFL for the answer I was needing!
 
To be honest I still prefer to disconnect if at all possible but in some cases it is just not possible or practicable. I guess it is just peace of mind. My system to be installed this summer will make it impracticable but not impossible to disconnect outside. I will still be able to disconnect inside at the far end of where the cable entrance is. Not the best place. I will however be putting the finishing touches on a proper ground system consisting of surge suppressors on coax cables, rotator cables, and remote antenna switch control lines as well as ensuring a single point ground for the tower, cable entrance panel, electrical power service entrance, and shack ground.
 
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Yes sir CK, I have seen it first hand and will say a properly grounded system will work even with a direct hit. Been there and been in one. Site went down for less than a minute and back on air. All this while we where in the shelter working in the power plant, which was an Emersom 2000 amp 24vdc power plant, scares the crap out of you and It was no fun, but the site kept functioning as it was made to do.
 
222DBFL said:
Yes sir CK, I have seen it first hand and will say a properly grounded system will work even with a direct hit. Been there and been in one. Site went down for less than a minute and back on air. All this while we where in the shelter working in the power plant, which was an Emersom 2000 amp 24vdc power plant, scares the crap out of you and It was no fun, but the site kept functioning as it was made to do.
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Oh sweet Jesus.....a fellow Thor survivor. :LOL: Yeah isn't a it a real heart stopper when Thor swings his hammer and hits the tower connected to the building you are in? :eek: Was working on an FM site when a storm rolled in. I thought I had time before it got that close. I didn't. The PA cavity was open and I had been changing out the driver tube which blew from repeated power bumps caused by the storm. I was over on the bench when Thor swung his hammer and I almost lost both bladder and bowel control at the time. The fact that the breakers in the panel tripped leaving me in total darkness at the time did not help matters.
 
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Captain Kilowatt said:
To be honest I still prefer to disconnect if at all possible but in some cases it is just not possible or practicable. I guess it is just peace of mind. My system to be installed this summer will make it impracticable but not impossible to disconnect outside. I will still be able to disconnect inside at the far end of where the cable entrance is. Not the best place. I will however be putting the finishing touches on a proper ground system consisting of surge suppressors on coax cables, rotator cables, and remote antenna switch control lines as well as ensuring a single point ground for the tower, cable entrance panel, electrical power service entrance, and shack ground.
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Disconnect is the simplest but not 100%. My old tower back in Ontario had a 6' ground rod per leg of tower, all connected to the tower and each other. I had my arrestors at the tower base (about 2' up the tower). Everything was tied together with 3/4" copper tubing (it was free). I used LDF-2 (again freebee) into the shack with N connectors. It was simple to un-hook 1 cable at the tower and move it away from the tower to the house (6' away).
 
LMAO CK!! Same here. Lights went, and we found ourselves in the center of the shelter like two babies lol. Not fun at all. Needless to say we waited for the rest of the storm to pass before touching anything else!!
 
222DBFL said:
LMAO CK!! Same here. Lights went, and we found ourselves in the center of the shelter like two babies lol. Not fun at all. Needless to say we waited for the rest of the storm to pass before touching anything else!!
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Like two babies? The image in my head, and it won't go away, is of two naked men crying and covered in feces. :confused: Please think about how you describe things in the future. :p
 
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Not meant like that, that's for sure! It did scare the bejesus out of us! When it happens it's not something your are expecting!
 
What is MIN gauge from transceiver to amp to tuner to ect to ground rod needed vs what one should have and how many ground rods and feet apart should they be as well as how deep in ground ect?
 
I've seen lightning strike commercial towers and understand the elaborate systems they have to protect their gear and W8JI is running antenna systems that rival most smaller commercial broadcast stations. I'm pretty sure that I can't do enough on my little lot to shield myself from one of the most powerful forces nature has to throw at us if it decides to dump a load on or near my gear. I'll be unplugging as usual and praying to the ham gods for a pass thank you.

Just remembering two summers ago during a storm (everything unplugged) we had a very close strike. The boom and flash were simutanious and a split second after that it sounded like a firecracker went off in my mancave (radio room). I ran back there and it was like nothing happened. No smoke or smell and and nothing wrong anywhere else in the house. I never figured that one out.
 
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