"Jack Painter" wrote in message

Mark, while your personal preference for disconnecting everything before a
storm is fine for you, your comment about "use of a shack bus bar is bad
practice" is insidious. You're an "Extra" class amateur license and should
know better. Maybe you didn't mean that literally, and only attempted to
stress the imprtance of single point ground, which you later mentioned.

No. I absolutely meant it. Using a ground "BUS" is daisy chaining all
the gear together. Using individual wires from each device to a common
ground point is commanly accepted as the best "modern" method. This is
fairly common knowledge, and not just something I made up. I know one
guy that used to hang on the antenna group "Gary Coffman" who is a
lightning protection consultant, and he'll tell you the same thing.
He's fairly well known as pretty knowledgable on the subject. Check
his old posts on the subject on Google. There are many...Just type
"lightning" and his name, and your browser will spilleth over...I
would recomemend his posts for general lightning protection info.
Along with the polyphaser web site which has quite a bit.

So
many Hams give bad advice about lightning protection that it's no wonder
newcomers remain confused. Which is no personal insult to you, because most
of them do the same thing, especially the ones who put up websites about it.

If it's proven to be bad advice, I'll be glad to retract it, but that
remains to be seen. Any other naysayers? Speak your piece...

Maybe that's where you came up with that nonsense, but nonsense it is. A
ground bus IS the single point that all equipment in a shack must bond to.
"Wires" cannot connect anything to a single point ground and still maintain
equi-potential of the station. Wide copper strap or copper bar (ie: BUS BAR)
is required for that, and the point where that bus terminates is the station
single point ground. The 1st ground rod which the station single point
ground ties to must be as close as possible, and preferably no more than 5'
from the "bus" all equipment is bonded to. More than 10' is dangerously high
impedance no matter what material is used as the bonding conductor or how
good the earthing connection is.

This is your opinion, and you are entitled to it...

Then a station must still disconnect all power, cable and telephone lines
that touch station equipment _unless_ serious surge protection is provided,
preferrably at both the AC service entrance _and_ the station equipment
itself. Then, a low impedance bond MUST be made to the AC/cable/phone
service entrance ground rod.

Of course..If the antenna is connected full time. ALL wires running
into the shack must be grounded or suppressed at the ground window.
Even if they don't connect to the ham or radio gear. And all ground
wires running from pieces of gear should also be tied to that same
point at the ground window. Or in my opinion anyway.. Others share
that opinion...

And of course if antenna feedlines are to be
left connected then arrestors are NOT an option. Why would you say such a
thing?

I don't understand your question. I said or meant I consider the use
of arresters as optional if the antenna is to be disconnected when not
in use, or if storms are around. Not all use them. I don't. It's my
option. I'm not saying anyone else has to omit them. Maybe I should
have said it's "my" option being I unhook...I don't leave mine
connected.

Who cares if you don't use them since you disconnect anyway? Of
course anyone who counts on disconnecting before every storm does not
require arrestors. But feedlines had better be shorted outside the station
unless a good single point ground and bonding was provided inside. The first
time you forget to do that, kiss all your gear goodbye, or pray for some
more of that "good luck" you have been so fortunate to have (twice)!.

It's not luck. My setup can handle strikes no problem at all. It's
been designed to do so. BTW, none of the other methods I use differ
from yours...That I see anyway...
Of course, I unhook mine. I never meant my post to be a "primer" on
lightning protection. I would have been much more lengthy had it been.
The topic has been covered many times by better sources than me and is
easily searched on google. I mainly just disagree with the ground bus.
And I still stand by what I said, until proven wrong.

The system is working as planned, and I'm not going to *fix* it. :/
But thanks anyway...
MK

Well I do wish you luck in your own designs, and hope you continue to share
valuable information with the group. But I don't factor in luck when some
asks "how can I protect my equipment from lightning?" It's just not
forgiving, even one time.

Who said anything about luck? Luck has nothing to do with it. I use
all the accepted methods. Or at least the modern ones...Some of the
ones left over from 1950's technology I avoid...Like the ground
bus..If luck had anything to do with it, I probably would have been
toasted the first strike. I don't want anyone taking what I say as
gospel. There are others better. But my lightning damage track record
speaks for itself. nada, zilch, nary...Not even a scorched coax or
wire. Even after two direct strikes to my mast. "Those are just the
ones I personally saw and heard. There could have been others I have
missed from not being around at the time...I'm fairly careful not to
spread BS. So far, I don't think I have, but if proven so, I'll be the
first to retract it. But, you'll have to do a better job of proving
your case than you have so far.
MK