On Nov 12, 12:46 pm, "JERD" wrote:
"Rick" wrote in message

...



I want to install a vertical, fed with an SGC230 at the bottom, but
concerned about minimising chance of a lightning strike on a bare
conductor.

Hi Nick,
There is virtually nothing you can do to prevent a strike hitting your
antenna.

Interesting topic!

I have a tall metal pole supporting one end of a long wire HF antenna. This
tall metal pole is set in 1 cu yard of concrete. Is this concrete suitable
for conduction into mother earth or should I run a large copper strap from
the pole to an earth rod?

JERD
VK5JE

Should be fairly good as is. Acts as sort of a "UFER" ground.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=ufe...p=mss&ei=UTF-8
I don't think adding another wire to ground would hurt anything,
but it's probably not needed to act as a decent lightning ground.
My mast is sitting directly into the earth. But I also run about
3 wires from the base of the mast to the ground system under
the mast, which is connected to all other grounds.
I've had two direct strikes that I know of, and they were non events.
The mast seemed to be fairly low resistance as the strikes were
very quiet. Or at least, thats one personal method I use to tell
if an object is a good lightning ground. A poor ground like a tree
will give a very loud crack as it strikes, and I'm not talking about
the sonic boom which occurs a very short time later. I'm
talking about the actual direct sound you hear from the strike,
which also gives a "click" to the auditory nerve if you are close
enough.
MK