Sounds like a mega stroke got you. Likely one of those 150-200ka positive
strokes. There are services out there that do 'forensic weather' analysis
and can look up individual or whole storm's worth of strokes to help figure
out how big of a stroke it was. I used to have direct access to that data
where I used to work, it was interesting to correlated current and polarity
after a big storm went by some times.
David Robbins K1TTT
e-mail: mailto:k1ttt@arrl.net
web: http://www.k1ttt.net
AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://dxc.k1ttt.net
> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com [mailto:towertalk-
> bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Cam and Juli Hedrick
> Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 17:45
> To: towertalk@contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Porcupines
>
> On Sailboats a porcupine is only intended to disperse the static that
> builds
> on the vessel during a thunderstorm. They have not been proven to work
> that
> well, and you won't see very many sailing yachts with one on the main
> mast.
>
> Ground systems are no guarantee that you will not get a strike either. My
> ground system is on par with a commercial broadcast station and yet I
> drove
> home one day to see pieces of a 6 element 20 meter mono-bander and the
> rotor
> all over the field following a severe thunderstorm. We have had worse
> storms where I've watched lightning hit the towers and sustained no
> damage,
> but this hit beat them all I guess. The hard-line, rotor cable,
> polypahsers, and so on were all cooked. It even got 4 strain insulators
> on
> the guys. There's roughly 4 miles on 10 gauge solid copper in the ground
> and 60 12' ground rods all interlinked and tied to the commercial ground
> per
> engineering designs. We get a lot of t-storms and lightning strikes at
> our
> QTH, so I went the extra mile and still had an insurance claim.
> Just goes to show that no matter how prepared you are you can still get a
> big strike!
>
> By all means don't even touch a wire or gear during a storm. I've had
> sparks
> fly between my fingers when I walked by an 40 meter yagi antenna I was
> building in my shop/shack during a major storm...ended up crouching on the
> floor with the hair standing up on my head as one of the towers took a
> hit.
> That one was so bad that my family was in the center of the house 100
> yards
> away doing the same thing I was and praying for me since I was so close to
> the major action.
>
> Shoot, our horse barn is even tied into the ground system since it's close
> to one of the towers.
>
> Build to take the heat, but it still may not take all of it. I'd venture
> that I have some $7k in my ground system.
>
> Cam Hedrick
> WA4JKW
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
> [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of
> towertalk-request@contesting.com
> Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 12:01 PM
> To: towertalk@contesting.com
> Subject: TowerTalk Digest, Vol 43, Issue 13
>
> Send TowerTalk mailing list submissions to
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>
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>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: Grounding base slab and pier tower bases (Keith Dutson)
> 2. Re: Water tower omni (bthorson@4smps.com)
> 3. Re: Grounding base slab and pier tower bases (David Robbins K1TTT)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2006 10:24:32 -0500
> From: "Keith Dutson" <kdutson@sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Grounding base slab and pier tower bases
> To: "'Doug Renwick'" <ve5ra@sasktel.net>, <towertalk@contesting.com>
> Message-ID: <001e01c69f7d$f359b9f0$7401a8c0@DUTSON.CORP>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> No need to present facts available to you. Just look up measured energy
> of
> a strike and compare it to the ability of the porcupine to dissipate this
> energy. BTW, while you are looking for facts, try to determine the amount
> of charge that can be dissipated by the porcupine.
>
> 73, Keith NM5G
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
> [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Doug Renwick
> Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 9:57 AM
> To: towertalk@contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Grounding base slab and pier tower bases
>
> I did not say that porcupines will stop all lightning strikes.
> I said "In other words, my addition of the porcupine did not have a
> negative
> effect."
> Scientific experiment will only trump experience IF the scientific
> experiment can exacting duplicate the experience and conditions!
> Please present your scientific experiment that proves porcupines will not
> stop strikes, any strike.
>
> Doug
>
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Grounding base slab and pier tower bases
>
> Experience may trump theory, but scientific experiment trumps experience
> EVERY time! porcupines on towers have been shown to not stop strikes.
> Not
> any more than an owl stops birds.
>
>
> David Robbins K1TTT
>
>
> --
> No virus found in this outgoing message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.9.8/380 - Release
> Date: 6/30/2006
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 04 Jul 2006 11:33:25 -0400
> From: bthorson@4smps.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Water tower omni
> To: towertalk@contesting.com
> Message-ID: <44AA8A45.6070809@4smps.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
>
> Can you tell me more about the 'Rolling Ball' concept and lightning?
> I've never heard of it.
>
> Someone, I think it was in the forum, said that lightning protection is
> like an insurance policy. The more you spend, the better your
> protection, but you couldn't guarantee that you weren't going to get
> taken out. Of course, there's the people who say that's silly, that
> professional broadcasters have to stay on all the time, through
> lightning hits etc. Of course their equipment is a bit heavier and a lot
> more expensive the typical equipment I install.
>
> The side tank mounting has been, at least so far, a relatively safe
> method. I think we've had one side tank mounted antenna taken out at
> most. (Actually the antenna wasn't taken out, but the coax as it was an
> old installation that wasn't properly grounded, if I remember correctly.)
>
> Ben
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2006 15:55:38 -0000
> From: "David Robbins K1TTT" <k1ttt@arrl.net>
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Grounding base slab and pier tower bases
> To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
> Message-ID: <003a01c69f82$4b885ab0$0800a8c0@k1tttibm>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> http://lists.contesting.com/_towertalk/2004-03/msg00380.html
>
>
>
> David Robbins K1TTT
> e-mail: mailto:k1ttt@arrl.net
> web: http://www.k1ttt.net
> AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://dxc.k1ttt.net
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com [mailto:towertalk-
> > bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Doug Renwick
> > Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 14:57
> > To: towertalk@contesting.com
> > Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Grounding base slab and pier tower bases
> >
> > I did not say that porcupines will stop all lightning
> > strikes.
> > I said "In other words, my addition of the porcupine
> > did not have a negative effect."
> > Scientific experiment will only trump experience IF the
> > scientific experiment can exacting duplicate the experience
> > and conditions!
> > Please present your scientific experiment that proves
> > porcupines will not stop strikes, any strike.
> >
> > Doug
> >
> > Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Grounding base slab and pier tower
> > bases
> >
> > Experience may trump theory, but scientific experiment
> > trumps experience
> > EVERY time! porcupines on towers have been shown to not
> > stop strikes. Not
> > any more than an owl stops birds.
> >
> >
> > David Robbins K1TTT
> >
> >
> > --
> > No virus found in this outgoing message.
> > Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> > Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.9.8/380 - Release
> > Date: 6/30/2006
> >
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
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>
> End of TowerTalk Digest, Vol 43, Issue 13
> *****************************************
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
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