Mark, it is true, lightning does what it wants to do.
I have had outside antennas of all types including towers , long wires,
dipoles, cb antennas, shortwave, Ham of all kinds, over the past 50 years, I
have had houses with ground rods and houses without ground rods and even when I
had ground rods some antennas would sometimes not be grounded... (one house I
had 19 antennas up at one time)..
I have a rule, if there is a threat of lightning, I AM NOT GONNA TOUCH THAT
COAX..
So that means I NEVER disconnect my coax when a storm comes.. NEVER...NEVER...
As far as I can remember I have never had lightning damage on any radio gear..
Back in the 80s there was some speculation that lightning may have come in
through the phone line and destroyed 2 modems ( I used to run BBS's)..
I have seen a few times where lightning hit TOWERS or POWER PANELS on homes,
some were hams and some were just people with no antennas...
I have seen gear supposedly hit by lightning.. Maybe some was, maybe some just
blew the finalscause the guy forgot to hook up the coax he unhooked the last
time he heard thunder.. ha ha
But even all the times we know about, it is still fairly unlikely.. and if the
lightnng has yourname on it.. ???
Good luck.. it is all VOODDOO..ha ha
Eddie (NU5K)
On Wednesday, April 8, 2020, 06:16:29 AM CDT, Mark Brantana via BVARC
<[email protected]> wrote:
Since folks are hunkered down anyways, here is a problem. I am improving my
emergency radio capability by adding a 2-m radio to my home office. Who knows
where this thing is going, and I think this is a good time to prepare. I would
like your thoughts or experience with the following.
I am looking to mount a 2-m antenna on my roof. Currently I have a TV antenna
attached with a j-pole just below the chimney output. I have a single-story
house. My plan has been to extend the j-pole about 4 ft higher to get better
TV reception, and mount the antenna just above it. I do have to watch out for
offending the HOA.
My property has power lines running parallel with the back of the house, and
these power lines are about 35 feet high and 35 feet laterally away from the
chimney.
I am concerned about a couple of things:
- Some day I may want to start a fire in the fireplace, and I do not want
the heat to get to the antennas. This is why I have the TV antenna mounted
below the top of the chimney.
- I would like to avoid arching or lightning strikes, though I think it is
quite common for most of us to have power lines around to contend with. Two
thoughts here:
- Of course, I will ground it all.
- I wonder if the power lines might protect the lower antennas since
lightning may hit them first. I mention this since the first thought was that
the power lines might add to the lightning risk, not detract.
- That said, lightning does what it wants, and even a nearby lightning
strike, as opposed to a direct strike, will do significant damage.
On that last point, I will share a short story. When in Louisiana many years
ago, we got into a discussion about how lightning had destroyed a lot of
equipment in a member’s shack. This included, as I recall, about 3-5
computers, and about as many radios. This was all sitting on a metal table.
Due to the lightning storm, the Ham had disconnected all of the antennas.
Lightning hit his tower and made the 2” jump to the table. The rest was
history. But, that was not the story I wanted to tell. That was the
discussion we were having. Another Ham broke in and told us that he had a
tower at one end of his house which was operational, and he had just that day
mounted a short marine antenna at the other end of the house on his chimney.
It was a dark and stormy night the previous evening, and the lightning passed
the tower to hit the yet unconnected marine antenna. So, lightning does not
follow the rules.
OK, so I diverged. I really would like to know what experience and advice you
can offer me on my project. The power lines make me nervous, and I really wish
my best mounting option were not in the heat zone of the chimney.
Mark
N5PRD
________________________________________________
Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club
BVARC mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org
________________________________________________
Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club
BVARC mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org
