[450] Lightning strike

[Thomas Moore]

  That really stinks John. I've had my share of hits here....thank God for 
homeowners' insurance.  I have a length of ladderline here that has ALL the 
copper vaporized out of it and the 102' of  #12 hard-drawn Cu from my g5rv 
vaporized as well.  The pl259 of that g5rv was in an old heavy milk bottle 
with a ground (pre-field)wire in bottle as well.
The bottom of the glass bottle melted and re-formed (it was also wrapped 
with insulating tape, then with pvc tape and sitting in a ceramic flowerpot 
dish).
  A broadcast engineer once likened a lightning hit to a bathtub full of 
water and the ground as the drain.  Ya gotta get rid of the water faster 
before damages occur. Bigger and lower impedance is the way to go. A ground 
field. I made mine from a 8' piece of 2" copper pipe with buried radials and 
additional pieces of Cu material. Add a lot of peat to the surrounding soil 
so the soil always stays moist. Raise the micromos of the soil to enhance 
conductivity ....mine is chemically enhanced with Magnesium Sulfate from 
time to time. I had also tossed a few handfull of pennies (hey, they're only 
a cent apiece) when the soil was open. The Cu coating will degrade giving 
off blue vitriol which will enhance the field.
  He also stated that they incorporate Cu spikes and metal brush-like gizmos 
on the towers. They gather the static from the area and send to ground. 
Theory is, it may stop the small static "leader" (which then opens the can 
of woims for the major strike) from happening.  Better to avoid the thing 
than to try and drain that bathtub full of h2o, eh.
  I've incorporated somethings like that here and haven't been hit in 11 
years.  Maybe luck, maybe the thing works.
Pipe


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <john.foege at gmail.com>
To: <450 at lists.vhfwiki.com>
Sent: Friday, August 21, 2009 6:52 PM
Subject: [450] Lightning strike


> I've realized today that the coax outside needs to be buried in a metal 
> conduit and also that for the home, the dog fence needs to be on a 
> seperate circuit, because it has a wonderfully large loop to couple 
> lightning strikes into the house....
> Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
> _______________________________________________
> 450 mailing list
> 450 at lists.vhfwiki.com
> http://lists.vhfwiki.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/450
> 

_______________________________________________
450 mailing list
450 at lists.vhfwiki.com
http://lists.vhfwiki.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/450