Sure!
My towers are on a Hilltop and to my knowledge have never been hit and we
get some nasty storms. Lightning has taken out the pump twice and it is
located between a 30 ft tall metal flag pole and a 40 ft stick of Rohn 25.
Lightning has hit trees by the house, the ground around the house, about
everywhere other than the towers. The towers are all grounded with 8 ft
ground rods off each leg. I think this is the key to avoiding strikes. The
house also has lightning rods around the rooftop and chimney.
Mike
W0MU
-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Gobleman [mailto:k9zm@frontiernet.net]
Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 1999 2:27 PM
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] Lightning Hitting Chimney
I just had the most amazing conversation with my contractor. I had called
him to check a roof leak next to a chimney in our bedroom. He had put the
roof on last year and we had just had a series of storms with 6" rain and
high winds overnight a few days ago. He could find nothing wrong with the
flashing, the chimney however has a bunch of bricks which appear to have
blown out in pieces and a new big crack that you could stick a pencil in.
The contractor says it was hit by lighting and the heavy rain and high wind
forced it in the crack to run out lower in the chimney, finally ending up on
our bedroom ceiling.
Now I'm no dummy, and I know that lighting will do what it wants to do. But
I looked at him, then the chimney, then at my 60' Rohn 25G tower 40 feet
away, with a 6el Telrex tri-bander, rotatable dipole for 40m and a 2meter
vertical on top, for about 75' in total height. Then I looked at the
nearest anchor point about 8' away with 2 steel guys going to the tower.
Further noting in my own mind that I had found no damage to anything related
to the radio or any electronic device in our home, and asked, " Don't you
think it would have hit the tower first or instead of the chimney." He said
"Maybe it's grounded better."
I can't wait for the insurance adjuster to see this. Has anybody ever
experienced anything like this? Just curious.
73
Greg K9ZM
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