Don't feel too left Chuck out we lost a tower site in the same storm. Second time in seven years a total loss. Both times we've lost our gear it has come via the electrical side. Our tower gets hit by a strike or two almost every storm and we never have issues. This time it literaly blew the entrance panel off the side of the building and outlets off the walls of the building. Cracked one of the APC batterty units, every ethernet surge suppressor and every grounded POE injectors were blown apart. Interesting that our four coax arrestors were okay, but the gear was cooked. Most of the cat5 ends included. Had spare gear on the tower plugged in at the radios but dangling in the building, we fired it up and were in operation within a few minutes. Took another 16 hours to get all of the damage cleaned up.
We have on that site forty-five 3/4" ground rods in two concentric circles around the tower and building none more than eight feet apart; all interconnected with #2 bare stranded wire and cad welded. Inside the building - a halo ring and 3 1/2" copper strapping, the list goes on and on for what we have done to minimize issues. We spent nearly 5K on grounding and still lost it all. We are moving to total battery power next week. I am looking for something I can use to isolate a smart charger from the power company when we see storms in the area, I expect we will have enough battery for a minimum 3 days runtime. Some type of relay that we can control remotely I would guess. If it makes you feel any better Verizon Wireless took total loses on four towers between Cincinnati and Louisville Tuesday as well. Dave Hulsebus Portative Technologies, LLC Chuck Hogg wrote: > Has anyone been able to withstand a direct lightning strike? We had a > tower get hit last night, and some of our equipment lost Ethernet ports > (RB/433AH), and we lost 3 canopy APs, but that is all (considering what > is all up there only 2/3rds was blown). Our Trango AP survived and a > RB/433AH survived. Even Nextel had their guys out there, but they just > had to reset alarms it appears as nothing was "fried" on their end. I > wish I had to just reset alarms. > > > > So tell me, what do you do ? I'm tired of dumping a few grand during big > lightning storms. > > > > I do the basics, Ethernet surge suppression up top and on the bottom, > Polyphasers, ground out to the ground bars, ground out the cat5 cable, > and no omni's. > > > > Regards, > > Chuck Hogg > > Shelby Broadband > 502-722-9292 > [email protected] > > http://www.shelbybb.com > > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > WISPA Wants You! Join today! > http://signup.wispa.org/ > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
