My tower was hit by lightning two years ago. The tower has 15 ground
rods and the control wires running into the house are protected with
Polyphasers. These are mounted on an insulated copper bar in my basement
which connects to two ground rods outside. The copper strap connecting
to the ground rods touches the wood frame of my house as it goes through
the wall. The strike discolored my mast, damaged all five ring rotors,
burned up all of my Polyphasers, but did not show any burning where it
touched the wood. While I wouldn't recommend mounting the copper directly
to the wood, I don't think you'd have any problem if you have a better
path to ground. I made my copper plates and insulators out of surplus
stock, but you can purchase some manufactured stuff at Harger.
73,
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Pete Smith
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Sent: 4/30/2001 1:54 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] House Entry
At 09:38 AM 4/30/01 EDT, K7LXC@aol.com wrote:
>In a message dated 4/30/01 12:25:03 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
>n4zr@contesting.com writes:
>
>> You might also want to consider using aluminum sheet, or mounting the
>> thinner copper on a same-size sheet of plywood for structural
strength.
>
> Don't forget that what you want is to have the sheet mounted on
>insulating standoffs. If you DO take a strike, you may set your house
on
fire
>if your grounding plate is mounted directly on wood siding.
I realize there is potential for a leakage path to ground through the
wood,
but the intent is for most of the strike energy to go to ground at the
tower end, with the disconnect/grounding panel only taking care of the
leftovers.
73, Pete N4ZR
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