Wow! I’ve alsways wondered about putting some lightning arrestors for my wire antennas but never have. Perhaps it’s time to do so. Curious anyone on the list do this w their wire antennas? My prob is that antenna enters home from third floor loft window and hard to run a long grounding wire to earth.

If you have multiple coax lines coming in, you might look into getting a coax switch. Many will ground the lines in the unused positions and have a position that grounds all of them. That won’t totally eliminate the dangers from a lightning strike, but in conjunction with the others might protect your transceiver.

—Mike Perry, WA4MP

I didn't know gas tube lightning protectors before reading here. Does the ground connection need to have a dedicated grounding (hard to achieve from my flat on the second floor of a bulding...) or can it be connected to the ground pin of any AC outlet in the house?

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On Sonntag, 14. November 2021 03:11:58 -03 tmmlrd wrote:

> I didn't know gas tube lightning protectors before reading here. Does

> the ground connection need to have a dedicated grounding (hard to

> achieve from my flat on the second floor of a bulding...) or can it

> be connected to the ground pin of any AC outlet in the house?

>

You don't want to set your house on fire, do you?
I'd recommend studying "Grounding and Bonding for the Radio Amateur" by H. Ward Silver, N0AX, available @ ARRL book store - as a starting point.

?

or start here:

?
very good and detailed advice by W8JI.
Even if you are not required to stick to US building and electrical standards the principles are worth studying and digesting.

There is too much involved to start discussing this on a mailing list I'm afraid (or on a forum for that matter).

?

73 de Eike ZP6CGE
>

>

I use gas tube suppressors (polyphaser)? mounted to a copper plate on
the ground rod inside a weather resistant box.? That's before it ever comes
into the house.? Its house protection as?anything that can't stand more
than 30-50V will die.? The ground must be best possible and also
bonded to the house ground.

The biggest issue is around grounds and what grounded as house
ground and lighting ground can easily have a high voltage differential
as a result of the pulse nature of lightnings high current pulse.? That
difference can kill electronic gear.

Most of the damage I've seen were hits to telco(PTT) and power lines
and then via phone and power lines in the house.

Allison
-------------------------------
Please reply on list so we can share.
No private email, it goes to a bit bucket due to address harvesting

Most of the damage I've seen were hits to telco(PTT) and power lines
and then via phone and power lines in the house.

I live in a lightning-prone location and that’s been my experience with telco amended to cable broadband. Lightning zapped a cable modem and the ethernet port on my Mac. I’ve since added toroids and cheap from ethernet lightning protectors for what benefit that may be. For lightning coming in on the power lines I’ve added a used Powervar line conditioner. Pulled from service but still functional ones go quite cheaply on ebay. Ones with “G” in their description can help with ground loop issues.

If your antenna is on a second-story balcony, you might just bring it indoors when not in use. That should work and will eliminate any trouble finding a ground.

—Mike Perry, WA4MP

Amen to that. We had a ground-strike about 8 years ago that came in through the CATV drop. Whacked my cable modem and router and everything that was hardwired to the router (shack computer, echolink node, printer, my TS-480 (via the SignaLink) and a variety of other things). Also got my sprinkler controllers, the chlorine generator in my pool, and a few other things - all of which were NOT connected to a router. Insurance paid about $8K for that one. Since then I've gone to a mesh system router (eero) and everything is now airgapped. Not going to make that mistake again!

Mike
WM4B

Mike,

Thanks for the suggestion. I’ve been running my Mac’s Internet link off Ethernet assuming wired would be faster. Not so. Wired, I’ve been getting only about 80 Mbps service despite paying for 200 Mbs. I have been blaming that on the buried CATV cable. Prompted by you, I just disconnected the Ethernet from my modem/router and linked via 5 GHz WiFi. I’m now getting about 180 Mbps, over twice as fast. The means I have no need to risk lightning riding in on that CATV line. I have about a 10-foot air gap between the cable service and my almost decade-old Mac. I suspect the problem lies with the slow USB-to-Ethernet dongle I put in when lightning fried the Ethernet on that Mac.

All utilities in my neighborhood are underground, including power. That makes the streets look better, but I’m starting to suspect that burying doesn’t offer protection against lightning, particularly given that my soil—impermeable silt and rocks—must conduct poorly. A few years back I dug a hole for a tree. Following a recommendation to saturate the soil around the hole, I filled it with water and went to lunch. Forty-five minutes later I came back and discovered that the water level had dropped only about an inch. This soil just doesn’t absorb water. That probably means poor conductivity.

Poor grounding could be a factor in this lightning damage. I’ve already added a grounding rod where the CATV service comes in. Grounding there had been just a few feet of copper wire. I need to drive a supplemental grounding rod or two where the service comes in and perhaps one next to the heat pump at the other end of the house. I also need to overcome my unease about working inside my home distribution panel and install that Siemens First Surge FS-140 whole house lightning protection device that I bought a couple of years back.

Given how many home appliances now have sophisticated, computer-like controls, whole house surge protection makes sense. Replacing those boards can cost hundreds of dollars. If you do shop for one, check the pricing carefully. I got mine from Amazon for about $150. The Siemens Store on Amazon now charges $570 for it. Home Depot sells it for $265. Walmart has it for $391. A plcCenter charges $280. I don’t have the foggiest idea why there’s such a wide range of prices.

Strangest of all, a Veegoshop has it for only $89.80. The paid link I found on DuckDuckGo starts out as Keekinc.com in California, which sells stylish women’s clothing, but then forwards to Veegoshop in Louisiana, which seems to be that same women’s clothing store. Neither shows this Siemens device via their store search, which you can see here.



If it’s legit, that $90 price is a marvelous deal, although I don’t know how to explain it. It may come without that $25,000 insurance coverage. Siemens will deny you bought it from an authorized store. The description of Veegoshop makes no mention of insurance.

Whatever, the Siemens FS140 is top-rated in this review. There are also a lot of positive reviews on Amazon.



Anyone troubled by lightning would do well to look into getting one of these devices. I got it for the peace of mind, although I need to realize that uninstalled it offers no protection and thus no peace.

—Mike Perry, WA4MP