You said you also had it attached to a fence? Is it aluminum? If so, as I am picturing my chain link fence, isn't that a more attractive ground? Does your wire cross any gutter or such metal? When you detach it from your radio, are you then making that line to fence a lightning rod of sorts? I am very curious and could learn something about this important safety issue.
On Wed, 31 Dec 2008, Ron Yearns wrote: > One thing I learned over thirty years in the electrical field is that > lightening does what ever it wants to. Grounded, ungrounded anything is > possible to be hit. Now there are some things we can to minimize hits. In > our case with the antenna. In the case with mine laying on the roof and > yours on top of a fence the antenna itself is just a hunk of wire laying on > the insulator, roof and fence. Now when we in practise hook it to ground > through the radio we make it more attractive to lightening. Kind of like > raising up a small mountian up. Ground potential raised up. Granted it > isn't raised very high but this equipment is expensive. So all things > considered I hope I remember to remove the antenna from the radio during > storms. > Ron > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Bill Stephan > To: [email protected] > Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2008 11:11 AM > Subject: RE: [BlindHandyMan] antenna question > > > I'm really curious about this. I've heard lightning warnings from a lot of > sources, and yes we do have some really spectacular storms, we Saturday > morning with serious lightning, 80 mph winds then a dramatic drop in temps > and snow and freezing rain. Is a wire antenna more attractive to lightning > than say your barbecue grill? I'm just asking here, and fortunately I did > have the radio disconnected during the storm. > > Bill Stephan, > Kansas City MO > Email: [email protected] > Phone: (816)803-2469 > > -original message- > Subject: [BlindHandyMan] antenna question > From: cheetah <[email protected]> > Date: 12/31/2008 10:51 > > hi well now you have your new radio running and your new long wire out there > on the fence. > remember > you need to unhook that wire come spring time when ever a storm is in the > area. > believe me you do not want to see the lightning in your house. > it is loud, smoky and tends to throw little pieces of radio or in my case > computer all over the room. > it majorly sucks > Jim > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > >
