On 20 Aug 2004 00:33:58 -0700, (SpamHog) wrote:

More silly musings:

Hi OM,

I'll tell ya what.... Instead of musing, or re-inventing the wheel,
you already have examples from others who went before you with this
identical risk and obviously you think they solved it (or at least
they dress like those who could).

Climb to the top of the building (you HAVE done this, haven't you?)
and LOOK at those antennas and feed lines already there. Do they have
this protection you fantasize about? Do they treat anything as
ground? Do their lines tie to it?

Is there any evidence of lightning strikes? After all, according to
reports here, the flicker of 100000A will melt unobtainium - is that
tower sagging from recent bolts blasted against it? Are there any
explosion marks and charring along those lines? Do you notice any
heat stress fractures where the tower is mounted?

Look over the side, or visit the sidewalk below. Are their any
puddles of slag or molten metal? Or is there any evidence of a fine
metal particulate mist deposited along side the building (it will look
glittery like Disco Makeup for a drag queen)?

No? Do you think they ignored the problem? (What are the chances
anyway?) Do you think you will attract a problem they have never
experienced? Ask yourself, what makes your antenna so much more
attractive when the Eiffel Tower looms over it.

Well, of course there are the products of that near-nuclear EMP. Look
around and see how well the occupants of the building survived this
terrible act. Is there a high tenant turnover every season of
lightning activity? Have you noticed a lot of hearses in the parking
lot on occasion (which begs the question, why weren't you fitted into
a box too)? When you took your trash out, were there piles of
smoldering phones, computers, TVs, clock radios and Internet toasters
filling the bins after a rain? The haphazard, zig-zag AC wiring you
describe should guarantee these results to some degree - at least
enough to reveal any one of these characteristics of catastrophic
results.

Finally, and to answer the question why your antenna, and not the
goliath above it; building those pentangle chokes may if fact incur a
vengeful bolt delivered directly to you. Who knows, in this modern
age that religious metaphor may be embellished to a nuclear cruise
missile to fulfill the prophecy of EMP. (Ah! Images of Monty
Python's Holy Hand Grenade come to mind.)

Let us know how it turns out. ;-)

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC