GROUND

[Brian Wood]

OK, Gotta throw my $0.02 here. I have a 70' Rohn 25 tower, a C-band
satellite dish, a pool and a sprinkler system in the back yard. The pool
equipment, dish and the tower are grounded via separate ground rods. All the
cables - coax, sprinker control lines, satellite RF, rotators and
everything - come in through the same PVC tube. Inside the house, a lot of
the lines parallel phone cables running through channels in the basement
ceiling.

A nearby lightning strike (never figured out where) in 1995 destroyed the
pool controller, sprinkler controller, Ham-IV rotator control box, satellite
receiver, every phone in the house, an answering machine and a computer that
was connected to the phone line. It also left burn marks on the wall of my
shack where coax ran past studs. One color TV in the bedroom was "gaussed"
and displayed images as if a big magnet had been placed in front of it. The
sprinkler controller transformer caught on fire and filled the basement with
smoke, but fortunately did not set the house on fire. The telephone Demarc
box was melted (suspect the lightning hit the phone line out in the front
yard and came in through the Demarc box, then coupled to everything else.

Fortunately, all my ham equipment was disconnected at the time and some of
it was over at a friend's awaiting use on Field Day. No one was home when
this happened! We were on vacation, and a housesitter who was on his way
over to check on things saw the storm from a distance. He had to call the
fire department due to the smoke in the basement.

Although I am not done grounding my shack properly, I have put good quality
surge suppressors on all plugs, and I have a quick disconnect on my rotator
cable and coax. I have purchased stuff to make a better ground system in the
shack, but I'll tell you, it's not easy to do all this. A second lightning
strike last year damaged the pool controller again, but that's all. I'm
getting there.

If you live where there's lightning, *please* take precautions and ground
your equipment and try to keep lots of cables from being near each other
where coupling can occur. Disconnect your coax and rotator cable when not in
use - outside! And make sure your insurance covers you. Mine did,
fortunately.

73,

Brian, W0DZ

-----Original Message-----
From: Heathkit Owners and Collectors List
[mailto:HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV]On Behalf Of john van laar
Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2002 11:03 AM
To: HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV
Subject: GROUND


If you ground it you will be hit lighting goes to ground. I have seen a two
foot ark from  a ground wire to ground 25' away. I also had two satellite
dishes 100' away one grounded and the other not grounded the wires were in
the same plastic pipe to the house the grounded one took out the lnb and the
receiver the other was fine. What i have found is only have one ground and
never have a grounded wire in the house during a storm. And a phone wire if
it is in the ground is most likely to cause damage. I see this all the time
as i do electronic repair. I unplug and unhook with every storm and keep a
old phone hooked up and all the good ones unpluged. Not long ago i had a
customer get hit and it put a hole in his water pipe he was not home and
what saved him more water damage was that he had a well and the power was
also off so only the water in the tank came out. I also see people with
lighting arrestors get hit all the time. One was on a chimney after it was
hit there was no chimney.              John wa2izb

-----------------------------------------------------------
This list is a public service of the City of Tempe, Arizona
-----------------------------------------------------------

Subscription control - http://www.tempe.gov/lists/control.asp?list=ATH
To post - HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV
Archives - http://interactive.tempe.gov/archives/HEATH.html

-----------------------------------------------------------
This list is a public service of the City of Tempe, Arizona
-----------------------------------------------------------

Subscription control - http://www.tempe.gov/lists/control.asp?list=HEATH
To post - HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV
Archives - http://interactive.tempe.gov/archives/HEATH.html