Do TV Stations and Radio Stations and Cellphone towers disconnect all their equipment everytime there is a storm in the area?
Obviously the answer is NO they don't disconnect and they don't even turn their equipment off. Yet is survives direct lightening hits on their towers and equipment. In other words there are ways that you also can protect your equipment without disconnecting it. You need a well designed ground system. This means a single ground system for everything that is in your home or a part of your antenna system. During a direct strike on the tower 90% of the hit should be bled off directly to ground through the ground system made up of many ground rods all connected together by proper copper connection. This leaves around 10% of the hit left for all the "Devices" that are connected to all the metal anythings that come and go from your home. Includes incoming power lines Telco lines Cable TV lines as well as all your rotor control lines relay lines and coax cables from the antennas. Anything that is metal that comes and goes from the house needs a protection device on it. I have three towers the tallest has antennas up to 175 feet above ground. The tallest trees here are around 70 feet high. So the towers get hit many times. They have been up since 1988. During the summer of 1989 I had a major hit on the tall tower that destroyed nearly everything in the house. TV sets microwaves all radios all computers many coax cables and other wires. But I learned the hard way to protect my system. I was placed on High Risk Homeowners insurance and the company that was assigned my insurance said I had 30 days to either get a proper ground system installed of get those towers all on the ground. We installed 100 ground rods all connected together by 1200 feet of 3/8" ID copper tubing. We installed a single point ground window where all the cables coming and going to the towers enter the house. Every wire has some sort of protection device on it. The main power line coming to the house has a protector device on it. The towers and antennas have since then withstood many strikes by lightening. Many surges from hits down the road that come in on the power lines. All with ZERO DAMAGE to anything in the house or on the towers. I did get lots of help from the techs at Polyphaser regarding how to build the system and how to install it. Total cost of this grounding system in 1989 was around $3,000 for all of it. Zero Labor as I and a couple other local hams installed all of it. Today we operate the station remotely during part of the winter so no way to unhook and rehook any of it. So you too can be safe and not worry about blowing up your equipment. Polyphaser Turn Blitz into Bliss. John k9uwa John Goller, K9UWA & Jean Goller, N9PXF Antique Radio Restorations [email protected] Visit our Web Site at: http://www.JohnJeanAntiqueRadio.com 4836 Ranch Road Leo, IN 46765 USA 1-260-637-6426 ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [email protected]
