Back in 2012 my next door neighbors maple tree was hit. It ran down the tree into the ground. To the north it ran along the galvanized water line where it blew the water meter and a chunk of the curbing across the street. To the south, it ran towards the house, jumped across the 8¡¯ wide concrete porch into the DOORBELL BUTTON.... blew a 4¡± hole in the concrete block wall, burnt all the interior house wiring (like, black scorched marks on the walls), shattering light bulbs and burning up light switches etc. burned the breaker panel out behind the house. It went from there into the phone line... to the pole in the street where it blew the cover off the 1940s era lead telephone junction box (found that down the street about 30yards).
Went into my house via the phone line from that pole, tripped GFCIs in the back of the house, broke two light bulbs in the ceiling, and then through the cable line fried the cable modem-and literally scorched the on-board NIC off the motherboard on my fileserver which was connected directly to the modem/router. So yeah... I have a healthy respect for lightning :-)
My radio in the front of the house was unplugged at the time - and fine. Not to say that a nearby strike can¡¯t cause issues even with an unplugged rig. But I think it¡¯s better than leaving it plugged in. At least it makes me feel better even if it¡¯s not accomplishing anything haha.
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On May 8, 2018, at 16:53, ajparent1/KB1GMX <
kb1gmx@...> wrote:
I've worked with shelters and all for land mobile.? They are ringed underground with rods and wires,
same with surfaces and corners and then everything that goes into teh building is though a copper
plate with with polyphasor or similar before it geto to anything inside. IT's bonded to the tower with
copper straps usually wide like 4 to 6 inches and more than one.? They can take a direct hit.
Many years before a AM BC station.? You have the filed with the 120 wire ground plane,
ground rods most 12ft abound.? Tower is up on insulators for base feed but thereis an
arc gap from each leg spaced maybe 3 inches? the feed sire goes to the load coil in the
doghouse next to the base and that has straps to ground for RF and sparks.? ?The feed lines
are arranged to arc ro ground before the TX shed.? Been there during a storm, the
sparks are impressive and frightening.? About 1 in 10 caused the big 5kw RCA to shut down
usually a reset of breakers was all it took to start running the heaters(tubes) then B+ and
the modulator.? About twice a year the power company feed was a problem so we were
1KW off genset backup.
Me I've gotten hit twice one direct to the house antenna, fried the #6 wire to BBs and
much of the electronics in the house.? Second time it hit a pole down the hill before
it went underground about a mile away the surge got me, mostly minor.
The big thing is to protect so two things happen.? You do not burn the house down.
Your insurance then will cover any damage (or they do their best to weasel out).
Complying with NEC code is more for the prevention of insurance issues.
Call me pragmatic.? Prepare for the worst be, happy if it doesn't happen.
Allison
