I remember when I was a kid a CB was in its prime in the 70's. My Dad would
disconnect the coax and put the end in a soda (or beer) bottle when there
was a storm around. He believed that the lightning coudn't get out of the
bottle. Fortunately, we never took a direct hit although the campground next
door did. That seemed to rumble for 10 minutes.
Also I remember a house with 3 camps on the same well. Lightning hit the
water pipe connected between them, traveled into the main house and came out
the water faucet in the kitchen. It connected with the breaker box on an
adjacent wall bout 12 feet away. I didn't experience it, and I am glad I
wasn't in the same room.
I drove wrecker for a while and a bolt hit a tree and tore the bark off like
string cheese. There was a car parked next to it over the root system and
melted holes in the front tires, and wiped out the electrical system. I was
impressed.
A ham (SK) well versed and studied in lightning realized that when
installing a lightning protection system on a structure using a pointed rod
(sharpened like a pencil) will dissipate static electricity well. The rod
itself will not pass the voltage or amperage of the lightning because of the
diameter of the point. This does not mean it won't hit the side of the rod
or the cable that is grounding it, but it might keep it out of the house.
A lightning protecttion system is like a fire sprinkler system. It cannot
prevent the event, but it can have an effect on the frequency (lightning) or
severity (fire).

There is no way to prevent a lightning strike, so remember to think out of
the box when attempting to prevent lightning. A little arrestor inline with
your coax will not keep lightning from entering via your coax, only
disconnecting anything wired from your house will deter it. It is
conceivable but extremely difficult to disconnect the AC power entering the
building, but disconnecting the cable tv, phone, etc is a start and will
help if someone is that obsessive.

WC


"Al Klein" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 18 Oct 2004 13:33:41 -0500, "PowerHouse Communications"
said in rec.radio.scanner:

Just a thought here, but did you drill any holes in the pipe to insert
the
wire into before soldering? My thinking is that if the wire is just
soldered to the outside of the pipe (without any other means of holding
the
wire attached to the pipe,) that should a lightning strike ever happen,
the
intense heat from the huge amount of electrical discharge may just melt
the
solder and allow the wire to become detached from the grounding pipe.

In the event of a direct lightning strike, the wire, the pipe (the
mast and antenna too) will disappear.

"Lightning protection" will protect the radio from static buildup from
nearby strikes, rain (raindrops carry a charge), etc. Don't *E*V*E*R*
think that you or your radio are "protected" against lightning by a
flimsy 6 inch thick piece of copper, let alone by a piece of wire, no
matter how thick. A lightning bolt is *at least* a few thousand volts
and a few thousand amps. (Yes, that's a MILLIONS of watts - for each
full strike.) The temperatures approach that of the sun.

Not impressed yet?

I've seen a well-"protected" commercial broadcast antenna (the gap
balls were about a foot in diameter each, grounded by solid rods a few
inches in diameter - no mere "wire") turn into a blackened concrete
base with 4 holes in it (where the tower legs had been), so don't
think that anything you install will do better. If you assume that a
direct strike to the antenna will kill you if the cable is still
connected to the scanner, you'll live a lot longer.

The last thing anyone wants is a link to a newspaper article telling
us how some hobbyist died from a lightning strike to his antenna.