"RHF" wrote in news:1113937736.278231.195640
@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

Thnaks for your comments. Please see my response elsewhere in this thread
concerning grounding needs.

Dr. Artaud

Dr Artaud & DX Ace,
.
The 'classic' Inverted "V" Antenna would usually
have a combined Top Apex Angle of 90* to 120*
or a Bottom Tip Angle of 30* to 45*.

"? Dr. Artaud ?" wrote

Thanks for the response. We just last night had another thunderstorm,
depositing plenty of noise and lightning nearby. Our house is physically
lower than the houses on either side, and the end of our yard has a very
tall Silver Maple tree, to which my random wire antenna runs from the
house. The wire ends about 7 feet from the tree trunk, and is tied to the
tree with the rubber strip that is used to hold screens in windows frames.
I fear that a strike to the tree will impart more than static to the
random
wire antenna.

Perhaps you, RHF, Jack Painter, or others can comment on how to protect
the
random wire from transferring a lightning strike to the tree from
following
the antenna wire. As I sleep by the radio, I don't with to be awakened
writhing from a lightning strike.

Regards,

Dr. Artaud

In my opinion, the best lightning arrestor products for up to 1.5 kw
transmission systems are made by Industrial Communication Engineers (ICE).

Solutions for either open-wire (no coax feed involved) or coaxial feedline
arrestors are shown at Array Solutions, the distributor for I.C.E.

http://www.arraysolutions.com/Products/ice/3.html

ICE also makes very convenient grounding blocks for the custom connections
of coax shield grounding. This allows a "manifold" connection of several
coax shield grounds to a ground rod and works very well. But Andrews and
Harger and others also make those, and Harger is probably the best for
grounding materials in general. Local electrical distributors will carry (or
order) Harger products.

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, Virginia

From: "Honus"
Organization: Death to Spammers
Reply-To: "Honus"
Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2005 03:26:26 GMT
Subject: Antenna Suggestions and Lightning Protection


"Greg" wrote in message
...


From: "Honus"
Organization: Death to Spammers
Reply-To: "Honus"
Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave
Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2005 21:21:53 GMT
Subject: Antenna Suggestions and Lightning Protection


wrote in message
...
www.lightningstorm.com There is another real good Lightning watch
website too.I have it in one of my many,many thousands of webtv Save
Folders thingys somewhere,or maybe I emailed it to meself.I have to
watch Fighter Squadon movie on tb now.
cuhulin

TB? Is that short for TBN, Turner Broadcasting Network? As in Ted
Turner,
the guy that was married to Jane Fonda for six years? If so, then shame
on
you.

TB - telebision. It's a Mississippi thang.

Seriously? The TB thing, I mean?

Actually, Dennis the Menace used to say "telebision" and I'll be that's
where Cuhu picked it up.

A friend of mine once worked for a Cuban gentleman whose last name was
Vidal. Mr. Vidal spoke with a heavy Cuban accent. My friend overheard Mr.
Vidal on the phone with a customer one day. The customer was asking his
name and he said "Bidal". The customer must have asked him to spell it.
"Bidal", he said, "'B' as in 'BICTOR'"!

Greg

"Greg" wrote in message
...


From: "Honus"
Seriously? The TB thing, I mean?

Actually, Dennis the Menace used to say "telebision" and I'll be that's
where Cuhu picked it up.

Okay...I suspected it was a local station, or something like that. I should
have gone with the most idiotic thing I could have thought of...and I'd have
still been wrong, since I can't throttle my brain that far back.

A friend of mine once worked for a Cuban gentleman whose last name was
Vidal. Mr. Vidal spoke with a heavy Cuban accent. My friend overheard
Mr.
Vidal on the phone with a customer one day. The customer was asking his
name and he said "Bidal". The customer must have asked him to spell it.
"Bidal", he said, "'B' as in 'BICTOR'"!

Ha! That's good!

"Simon Mason" wrote in
:

In a period of 1 and 1/2 hours, while doing other things on the internet
as well, but being limited to a 56K Modem, I was not able to download
the entire video.

Thanks for the offer, it looked interesting, but you might want to
reconsider posting it in another format that is more commensurate with
slow modems, or else all the people with 56K modems will die off from
lightning strikes, and only the Cable and DSL people would remain in the
world.

I can see why, here is Simon's other safety videos.

"Every month I try and produce a safety related video for my work
colleagues. For those with a fast connection and nothing better to do
with their time, here is a selection."

http://www.simonmason.karoo.net/page463.htm

Regards,

Dr. Artaud


"§ Dr. Artaud §" wrote in message

Lightning strikes very often happen on very pretty Summertime
days/nights when you least expect lightning to happen.There are very
good ways to protect your radio antennas and radios agains't
lightning strikes.I don't know much of those ways,perhaps someone
who does know will show up and elaborate about such things.
cuhulin

Or watch my safety video!

http://www.swldxer.co.uk/safetyvideo23.mpg

Dennis the Menance always liked to watch Cowboy Bob,Western movies on
Telebision.Isn't there some sort of a little "air valve" isolator device
available somewhere that attatches to antennas and is suppose to be
effective for isolating/preventing lightning strikes from frying radios
and other kinds of electronic equipment.Seems to me I once saw an
advertisement about something like that in a magazine or a catalog years
ago.
cuhulin

An old buddy of mine was in the U.S.Navy.He once said there was a guy on
his Ship (USS Ticonderoga, www.dogpile.com USS Ticonderoga) who
always pronounced Valve as Balve.
cuhulin

So,whatever became of Lightning Rods for homes and buildings? That is
old technology that still works very good.I think they are still
available on the market.They are simple long metal rods that attatch to
the roof and a cable or heavy wire that is grounded to a long rod driven
into the ground,I think.I think I will look into that for my house.
www.dogpile.com Lightning Rods
cuhulin

wrote in message
...
So,whatever became of Lightning Rods for homes and buildings? That is
old technology that still works very good.I think they are still
available on the market.They are simple long metal rods that attatch to
the roof and a cable or heavy wire that is grounded to a long rod driven
into the ground,I think.I think I will look into that for my house.
www.dogpile.com Lightning Rods
cuhulin

The lightning rod situation has reversed. The purpose of a pointy spike on
the roof or tower was to break down and arc at lower voltages, causing a
lower potential in the protected cone and encouraging lightning to go
somewhere else.

These days lightning ATTRACTERS are used. They look like large copper
spheres on top of a building which do the opposite of a pointy spike, they
breakdown at much much higher voltages (remember the Van Der Graf generators
from school). Then when lightning strikes it is conducted directly to a
really effective ground system via coaxial cable.

Old lightning rods also create a lot of RF noise as the corona discharge
increases.

http://www.ferret.com.au/articles/ce/0c01fcce.asp

Brad.

"Jack Painter" wrote in
news:A4bbe.17243$Z73.17113@lakeread04:

Read carefully before reacting. It gives both opinions concerning sharp
and blunt pointed Air Terminals.

Confusing, isn't it?

Oddly enough, while watching a demonstration with a Van De Graph Static
Generator at the local science center, the device was nullified in terms
of generating static when a simple metal tack was placed point up on top
of it. Also, coronal arching occurs with high voltage systems off any
pointed surface, requiring the use of metallic mesh tape to smooth out
the junctions.

http://www.amasci.com/emotor/vdg.html
http://www.infraspection.com/thermography/corona.html

Dr. Artaud


http://www.nab.org/membership/benefits/Nov00.asp

"Presently, there is much debate among lightning protection experts
regarding air terminal design. According to researchers, a sharp or
pointed air terminal has built in defenses against lightning strikes. The
strength of the electric field around the tip of a sharp air terminal is
limited by a phenomenon called "point discharge." When the electric field
around the air terminal reaches a certain strength, the current from a
stepped leader is allowed to flow through the terminal from air to
ground, before a lightning strike occurs. Overtime, the sharp point of a
conventional air terminal or lightning rod erodes due to atmospheric
conditions. This causes a rod to hold its charge and produce streamers,
providing a path for a lightning strike. Therefore, a blunt lightning rod
is more likely to intercept a lightning strike. While a sharp pointed
lightning rod is more likely to prevent a strike. The effectiveness of
sharply pointed versus blunt lightning rods is currently being studied."



http://www.marinelightning.com/science.htm

"In this respect, research reported by Dr. Charles Moore and associates
in New Mexico only two years ago finally resolved that blunt lightning
rods are actually more effective than the traditional sharp pointed
rods."