WorldwideDX Amateur Radio Forums

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being "I'll shoot my eye out" and one being "go ahead and give him the BB gun", how much should I worry about an ungrounded antenna in my attic.

I have professionally installed lightning rods all over my roof. But I am told even a near strike can charge the antenna and fry my system. That's never happened to any other equipment in my house tied to the cable TV or phone system in 4 years in the lightining capital of the western hemishere, central Florida.

__________________
The more I learn, the more I realize that I don't know a lot more than I thought I didn't know.

Remember that newer units are laden with mosfet devices which are sensitive to static charges.

No more worry than you having lightning rods mounted to attract lightning to your home.

I would have them in the tops of trees around my home.

Wrong. Lightining rods provide the path of least resistance for lightning to enter the ground through paths OTHER THAN the house. It is the same principle as providing the path of least resistance when grounding an antenna. Having rods in adjacent trees is not likely to reidrect lightning strikes.
HowStuffWorks "Lightning Rod"

__________________
The more I learn, the more I realize that I don't know a lot more than I thought I didn't know.

You could build a static dissipation array.

Attached Images

Satic Dissapation.jpg (7.0 KB, 62 views)

__________________
MASTER TROLL
Don't confuse my personality with my attitude.
My personality is who I am.
My attitude depends on who you are.

"If you build it they will come" I'm Right and I live in a region that records as many lightning strikes as Florida and back in the 30's and 40's the snake oil salesmen sold millions of units "lightning rods" to poor unsuspecting dolts and many of them lost homes to lightning strikes that may have never occurred if they did not attract the lightning.

Nowadays no one here would even think of mounting something like that anywhere near their homes for just that reason and if it were such a hot idea it would be building code and not just the bullshit you're handing out here.

More efficient warding off lightning strikes than any freaking lightning rod.

The theory behind the dissipation array is to bleed the charge to ground before it becomes a full blown strike.

I see the umbrella type on a lot of small towers around Alabama and have seen the arrays on broadcast towers that resemble throwing stars on stalks.

I am sure Capt. KW has had some experience with them and will chime in on this thread at some point.

Some swear by them. Some swear at them.

__________________
MASTER TROLL
Don't confuse my personality with my attitude.
My personality is who I am.
My attitude depends on who you are.

I'll take several pieces of small diameter steel cable frayed at one end then attached to the chassis and cab of semi trucks and this totally eliminated static shocks when leaving the vehicles.

Them lightning rods cb antenna never did that for me! I know those are above ground of the vehicle but it sounds really good if you know know all the snake oil technologies.