Steve,

Sorry, you are the one who is furthering the lightning rod myth. There is no way
a "true lightning rod" bleeds off enough charge to avoid a strike. That idea
is about 99% urban legend.

I suggest perusal of the Polyphaser web site. There is a lot of good information
there. One relevant comment is:

"The real solution for lightning protection is to have control of the strike
energy. To do this, a well-designed ground system will be a better investment
than cluttering up the top of the tower."

The cluttering refers to a bottlebrush arrangement of multiple sharp points, but
the same idea applies to a single sharp point.

As usual, Mark is right on target.

73,
Gene, W4SZ

Steve Nosko wrote:
Though in practice you are correct to express concern, your reason is
not properly stated. You further the lighting rod myth.

Actually, "if the antenna acts as a lightning rod." He'll have little
problem. The purpose of a true lightning rod is to blead off the charge,
defeating a strike, not to attract it. A lightning srtike will blow any
lightning rod system to smithereenes.
When a charged object has a sharp corner or point, the charge tends to
collect there. Because there is more charge at that p[oint it will have a
higher concentration and therefore a higher voltage. It builds to the point
of forming a corona/plasma and will discharge it. That's why the van De
Graf (sp) generators have the round ball on the top. They WANT to build up
the charge and not loose any more than necessary..
I all fairness, I do not know if lightning rod systems work in
practice.They do wear out due to the discharge corona and should be
sharpened periodically. Apparently the points of the typical beam are
not sufficient or they wouldn't get struck, no?

73, Steve K,9.D;C;I


"Mark Keith" wrote in message

In my case, those are pretty much the same place. All my grounds tend
to rise in potential at the same time, being they are all tied
together at the base of the mast. Nothing is perfect of course, but
you sure don't want any large potential differences between grounds.

It's not just a simple CD circuit.
I've seen tower strikes where there was such a strong current and fast
rise time, the magnetic field quenched the current flow and the
lightening got off part way down and jumped sideways to something
else.

If I remember right, the original poster was going to mount an antenna
on a roof. That has the potential for even more serious problems if
the antenna acts as a lightning rod. He'd want as few turns or sharp
bends in the ground wire to earth. This is why I much prefer using a
metal mast on the side of the house to support verticals or other high
risk antennas, rather than a mast attached to the roof of the house.
And then hoping a ground wire will safely direct the charge to
earth...It usually will, at least much better than the house itself,
but it's kind of scary if it has turns or bends.
The important part at the house is making sure that everything rises
together so there's no lower resistance path for the charge to take
through the shack or house. At the mast, I always tape all coaxes or
wires to the mast, and run them all the way down to earth to try to
avoid flashing problems. So far in two strikes to the mast, I haven't
noticed any, and I have a breaker box, elevated power lead in, phone
lines, cable lines, all within 5 ft of that mast. MK