A single bolt of lightning can contain up to one billion volts. And not even a full-fledged lightning protection system can divert 100% of that electricity safely into the ground. That is based upon a DIRECT strike, not a local strike in the area. But a connected antennae to your shack is a lightning magnet. Best recourse? Knowing upcoming storms are likey, simply disconnect your antenna from your shack until storm passes. No surge protection can guarantee complete strike protection. The speed of the surge can pass faster than a fuse can blow. Its that fast. NK5Q
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android On Wed, Oct 4, 2023 at 19:49, Robert Polinski via BVARC<bvarc@bvarc.org> wrote: Buy some good quality surge protectors. Make sure they have a protected light on them. Tripp-Lite good brand. Most surge protectors use MOVs to absorb the surge. If hit, they can be destroyed and you will never know it. The protector will continue to pass power but offer no protection. Higher quality protectors will have a protected light on them, when the surge hits it will blow a fuse causing the light to go out indicating a surge damaged the MOV. You need to replace the surge protector when the protected light is out. Robert -----Original Message----- From: BVARC <bvarc-boun...@bvarc.org> On Behalf Of Fox Danger Piacenti via BVARC Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2023 7:17 PM To: BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB <bvarc@bvarc.org> Cc: Fox Danger Piacenti <kelke...@gmail.com>; Robert Polinski <emdhous...@suddenlinkmail.com> Subject: Re: [BVARC] Techniques for mitigating Lightning Thank you. This is indeed a deficiency in my current setup and sounds like it wouldn't be expensive to fix. Is there anything else I can do? Best, -Fox On 10/4/23 12:04, Robert Polinski via BVARC wrote: > First, make sure any ground rods or grounding system used in your ham > shack is bonded to your house electrical ground. This is a common > failure in lots of ham shacks. If a nearby strike induces voltage in > your electrical system and your house ground has a higher resistance > to ground than your shack ground, it will seek the lower resistance > ground, by way of your ham equipment. This is why the National > Electrical Code requires all supplemental grounds (your ham shack > grounds) to be bonded with #8 ga or larger wire together. Robert > KD5YVQ > > -----Original Message----- > From: BVARC <bvarc-boun...@bvarc.org> On Behalf Of Fox Danger Piacenti > via BVARC > Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2023 11:29 AM > To: BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB <bvarc@bvarc.org> > Cc: Fox Danger Piacenti <kelke...@gmail.com> > Subject: [BVARC] Techniques for mitigating Lightning > > Hi all! > > During most storms I find myself disconnecting my antenna from my > radio and staying off the air. I figure that a direct strike from > lightning isn't something I can do much to mitigate on a household > budget other than to not be the tastiest target for a bolt nearby. > > However I am concerned with strikes that are close enough to induce > current strong enough to damage the sensitive electronics in my > transceivers. This seems especially important for a place like Houston > where our weather can be very extreme, and where having radio comms working could be helpful. > > What do you do to make your home stations more resilient to nearby strikes? > How do these differ for UHF/VHF rigs verses HF? > > Best, > > -Fox, KW6FOX > > > ________________________________________________ > Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club > > BVARC mailing list > BVARC@bvarc.org > http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org > Publicly available archives are available here: > https://www.mail-archive.com/bvarc@bvarc.org/ > > > ________________________________________________ > Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club > > BVARC mailing list > BVARC@bvarc.org > http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org > Publicly available archives are available here: > https://www.mail-archive.com/bvarc@bvarc.org/ ________________________________________________ Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club BVARC mailing list BVARC@bvarc.org http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org Publicly available archives are available here: https://www.mail-archive.com/bvarc@bvarc.org/ ________________________________________________ Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club BVARC mailing list BVARC@bvarc.org http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org Publicly available archives are available here: https://www.mail-archive.com/bvarc@bvarc.org/
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