Hi Jack

The damage to my tower was directly my own fault.

It was of tubular aluminum construction and DID have drain holes in
the legs so they could not readily fill with water.

I made two very dumb mistakes that contributed to the damage.
The first was using one of these holes for attaching the ground rod
strap to the tower, instead of the clamp that WAS provided for the
purpose.
And the second was backfilling over these holes when a new air
conditioner was installed, and a small retaining wall placed between
the steps, tower and A/C unit.

Had there not been water in the leg of the tower, it would have taken
the hit unscathed.

There was a grounding strap on each leg of the tower at the unions
between sections, these were installed properly or should I say, per
the instructions, hi hi.....

Ironic, I was way overboard on everything else as far as protection
from lightning. Had a copper bulkhead on the house, grounded of
course. All coax shields were grounded first to the bulkhead and then
through gas bottles which were also grounded. The station equipment
was ground, even equipment in plastic cases I installed a ground to
the chassis and they were grounded too.

I did everything right except I forgot about one old abandoned rotor
cable that was coiled up behind 4 file cabinets, out of sight out of
mind. Luck of the Irish, the day I took the hit, I had sparks flying
all over my shack. My pooch who was young then, terrified of thunder,
came to my office to be by me for protection, just when the sparks
began to fly. He never came into my office ever again!
The only damage from this rotor wire was a few burn marks on the back
of the file cabinets. The tower obviously took the main hit.

As an aside. A tree outside my mothers home was struck by lighting.
Split that sucker almost all the way to the ground. Dad bolted it
back together with threaded rods and it survived, it's still living
too.
But the reason I brought it up is that INSIDE the house, sparks danced
all over my mothers stainless steel kitchen sink, made burn marks and
pits all over it. We later discovered the aerator on her faucet spout
was fused to the spout and it too was severely burned and pitted.

Back then all the waste lines to the sink were metal, not PVC as used
today and all the water lines are copper. So I assume both the sink
and the faucet were grounded.

Makes one wonder how lightning got inside the house and bounced around
in her sink and did enough damage that the sink and faucet had to be
replaced.

TTUL
Gary