I've posted something about this before, but again here is my 3 year old Gain Master antenna after lightning hit a tree in my neighbor's back yard. I was installing my Cannon Power Shot A620 camera on my new computer and I found these old pictures.
I haven't checked the feed line yet, but none of my radio gear was damaged, and the antenna was hooked up to my Galaxy DX 2547. My cable TV box was damaged, and the cable splitter on the service pole out back was replaced. Several of our neighbors had TV problems too.
What you see in the air is 1/2 the antenna and the other 1/2 we see on the ground here was still connected together and was stuck tip down into the ground a few feet away from the base of the antenna in the yard next door. I pulled the rubber cap off an the brass wire retainer with the antenna wire attached was still intact. All of the wire you see here is the entire radiating part of the antenna, from the tip down to the choke. I think the choke wire itself is still in the air, and the coax is still connected. I can only hope the coax is OK. It shows and open circuit when tested for continuity at the radio end and when the antenna was in good shape the coax showed a short...as I think it should show. So, I'm guessing the coax may still be OK. If it was burned it would likely show continuity.
Long ago I had a both a Shakespeare Marine Big Stick and an A99 with direct hits and both the wire in the antenna and the wire in the coax are probably still flying around in space somewhere, and in both cases the FG rained down below. I've never had an all metal antenna hit at my station, but my Sigma 4 shows a 1/4" burn hole at the very tip right below the rubber cap. Neither install was grounded in any special way.
I was lucky.
I haven't checked the feed line yet, but none of my radio gear was damaged, and the antenna was hooked up to my Galaxy DX 2547. My cable TV box was damaged, and the cable splitter on the service pole out back was replaced. Several of our neighbors had TV problems too.
What you see in the air is 1/2 the antenna and the other 1/2 we see on the ground here was still connected together and was stuck tip down into the ground a few feet away from the base of the antenna in the yard next door. I pulled the rubber cap off an the brass wire retainer with the antenna wire attached was still intact. All of the wire you see here is the entire radiating part of the antenna, from the tip down to the choke. I think the choke wire itself is still in the air, and the coax is still connected. I can only hope the coax is OK. It shows and open circuit when tested for continuity at the radio end and when the antenna was in good shape the coax showed a short...as I think it should show. So, I'm guessing the coax may still be OK. If it was burned it would likely show continuity.
Long ago I had a both a Shakespeare Marine Big Stick and an A99 with direct hits and both the wire in the antenna and the wire in the coax are probably still flying around in space somewhere, and in both cases the FG rained down below. I've never had an all metal antenna hit at my station, but my Sigma 4 shows a 1/4" burn hole at the very tip right below the rubber cap. Neither install was grounded in any special way.
I was lucky.
