Several years ago before my house was fully completed, I had my coax lines disconnected but just lying on the concrete floor of the room I had my ham gear in. I usually had those lines terminated in a short, but one day as a storm was approaching (it was still at least five miles away) I noticed that the line from the 80m dipole didn't have the shorted PL-259 on it. I bent down with one hand on the concrete floor and reached for the insulated casing on the coax with the other hand. My free hand swept by the end of the coax, though, and I drew a very bright, very thick, and very blue 2 inch long arc to my hand ... which of course traveled through my body to the other hand that was on the floor. My biceps were sore for three days afterward.
The breakdown voltage of air with 40% humidity (roughly what we have here in southern Arizona during the monsoons) is about 8kv/cm. Of course that is also a function of the sharpness of electrodes, but still ... I got zapped with a LOT of energy especially considering the thickness of the arc. Apparently, though, it was too much to represent a lethal shock to my heart (which is more like milliamps) and too little to fry my body.
To be clear, that energy wasn't the result of a strike. It was simply static buildup between the legs of the 80m dipole. I short everything now when it isn't in use.
73, Dave AB7E On 8/24/2022 1:54 PM, Gene Robinson wrote:
Working at Collins in the 60’s we had a lab with no windows but we did have 18 foot vertical antennas on the roof. We would have NE2 neon bulbs connected to the RF coax feed lines and when thunderstorms were within 5 miles they would start to flash. We all then went out to the parking lot and rolled up our windows. The rain and lightning would arrive about 10 to 15 minutes latter. The break down and flash voltage for a NE2 is 90 volts! Keep those antennas disconnected when not in use. Gene N5LDX Sent from my iPhone ______________________________________________________________ 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]
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