Bleh! Thunderstorms in the area today. I read or was told somewhere to unplug my antenna at the radio when there are thunderstorms. How much truth is there to this or how much is myth? Is it just good general practice?
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Thunderstorms
- Thread starter Peter Walker
- Start date
I did ground the pole after the pictures were taken. I went ahead and unplugged it just to be safer than sorry. One day of inconvenience is better than a lifetime of regret they tell me. 
RatsoW8
Supporting Member, W9WDX ARC Member - WD8T
Considering, by your pictures, you didn't have the Antenna (mast) grounded - it wouldn't hurt to be safe. In real life - you shouldn't allow anything (coax) into your house without proper grounding to an outside location (before) the coax leads into the house. Prepare yourself for a bunch of responses to this one - their are a lot of opinions about protecting your equipment from lightning.
Ground all you want it's a good idea and might help. But always disconnect and make sure the coax is OUTSIDE your house when lightning is around. I made a box outside where I disconnect. Even a close strike has the potential to fry your equipment.
just put the end in a mason jar
One word comes to mind and that word is "shrapnel".
Whatever you do for grounding it is always a good idea to disconnect the coax from the radio. that pretty much eliminates any chance of the radio being blown to bits in the event of a strike and form damage from a nearby strike.
During the winter months I leave the antennas connected but as soon as the weather forecast starts calling for a chance of thunder showers I disconnect all my antennas and leave then disconnected until I go on the air. When I get off the air I disconnect everything again. I do this all thru the spring and summer into fall until the threat of thunder storms has passed. Nothing like being away from home and have a good ripper of a storm move thru and you have to worry about the radio gear back home.
I was hit back in 1993,and everything is unhooked after use.My frend was hit durring a snowstorm in 82....we have thundersnows in Missouri,and get bigtime snow then.73s de JW
After reading what everyone has posted in their replies, I just want to make sure I am doing the right thing to protect my investment. I have grounded the pole the antenna is on. I was reading today different ways to ground the radio in the station and my MFJ 941E came today and it mentions grounding that as well. I have seen a picture where one guy grounded his stuff in the station via a piece of copper pipe affixed to the wall and I was reading you could do the same with a copper PCB on the bottom of the desk. Could some of you please post pictures of how you have your gear grounded inside the shack? It would be much appreciated.
Probably the best thing a guy can do is to add a some sort of disconnect outside the house in the feed line that can be shorted directly to earth, just take a length of coax connected to your earth rod with a pl-259, double female barrel connector and attach your feed line to that when storms loom dangerous.
Consider this...years ago in the 1950's back when TV's still used metal outdoor antennas, my grandma's neighbors were sitting in front of the TV when a thunderstorm hit...kids got up to go to the kitchen for food, lighting hit the antenna and went down into the TV...the face of the TV blew out and left an empty shell...lightning then managed to somehow burn a hole in one of the beds...unsure how this happened, maybe it went thru the TV electrical cord into the wall outlet and came out of a wall outlet next to the bed?
Grandmother told me that story once and both my aunts confirmed it. Scary stuff. And good thing those kids moved before they got a face full of picture tube. Grandma always unplugged her TV during thunderstorms after that.
Grandmother told me that story once and both my aunts confirmed it. Scary stuff. And good thing those kids moved before they got a face full of picture tube. Grandma always unplugged her TV during thunderstorms after that.
My father
All of my fathers antennas are all on towers and at least 100 ft from his house. He has quick disconnects on each tower and they disconnect no closer than 5 feet from his house.
Back in the 60's when my father was a teenager and a young ham, he lived in a brick 2 story house in Niles Illinois. His bedroom was on the first floor and he ran his coax out his bedroom window to the roof where his antennas were. A storm was moving in fast one Spring evening, so he disconnected all of his coax from the radios and quickly shoved them out the window. So now, the cables are dangling down his house from the roof. While listening to a radio for weather updates, they all heard a loud crash and a flash of light outside the window. When the storm passed they went outside and found a burn mark on the side of their house from the roof to the ground. The lightning strike had blown the shielding off the coax, traveled down and jumped to a little girls bike and literally blew the tires off and caught the seat and basket on fire which caught the mulch on fire beside the house. He took pictures and they are now hanging in his shack.
You can never be too careful when shielding your house from lightning strikes.
All of my fathers antennas are all on towers and at least 100 ft from his house. He has quick disconnects on each tower and they disconnect no closer than 5 feet from his house.
Back in the 60's when my father was a teenager and a young ham, he lived in a brick 2 story house in Niles Illinois. His bedroom was on the first floor and he ran his coax out his bedroom window to the roof where his antennas were. A storm was moving in fast one Spring evening, so he disconnected all of his coax from the radios and quickly shoved them out the window. So now, the cables are dangling down his house from the roof. While listening to a radio for weather updates, they all heard a loud crash and a flash of light outside the window. When the storm passed they went outside and found a burn mark on the side of their house from the roof to the ground. The lightning strike had blown the shielding off the coax, traveled down and jumped to a little girls bike and literally blew the tires off and caught the seat and basket on fire which caught the mulch on fire beside the house. He took pictures and they are now hanging in his shack.
You can never be too careful when shielding your house from lightning strikes.