here's a question i thought of today..............i was driving in a bad lightning storm today when i thought, what would happen if my truck (primarily the antenna) got struck by lightning (besides me needing a new pair of shorts to wear.....lol).....i know the chances of that are about slim to none, but hey, you never know
so then i thought, how about an antenna hooked up to a base unit, being they would be alot higher in the air then my antenna on my truck
i was just thinking about that today and didn't know if anyone knew anything about it, or if it happened to them
lightning strike???????
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rayray1963
here's a question i thought of today..............i was driving in a bad lightning storm today when i thought, what would happen if my truck (primarily the antenna) got struck by lightning (besides me needing a new pair of shorts to wear.....lol).....i know the chances of that are about slim to none, but hey, you never know
so then i thought, how about an antenna hooked up to a base unit, being they would be alot higher in the air then my antenna on my truck
i was just thinking about that today and didn't know if anyone knew anything about it, or if it happened to them
I'm pretty sure thats why you should earth ground the antenna.......
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Mr RadioActive
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coondog
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521 Houston
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Looney
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coondog
yea my i-max antenna is up 100 feet mounted next to a big oak.the second day after i put it up there a big electrical storm came through and when i was laying in bed watching tv a huge roar of thunder and then a flash of lightning along with the sound of electricity was right next to the window.
i thought for sure the antenna was gone.low and behold it was alright.iv"e seen what lightning can do to a antenna and surely never want to have to get up that tree to replace it.i worry about it all the time when a storm or even a ice storm comes.
its worth it though being up 100 ft.like they say height is might.
i thought for sure the antenna was gone.low and behold it was alright.iv"e seen what lightning can do to a antenna and surely never want to have to get up that tree to replace it.i worry about it all the time when a storm or even a ice storm comes.
its worth it though being up 100 ft.like they say height is might.
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mudder
my friends i max 2000 antenna got hit last year blew his antenna into hundreds of little pieces all over his roof and front lawn.His new preident lincoln radio was fried his 35 amp astron power supply fried his galaxy satrun base melted on one side of it.His antenna was not grounded.I for one have my antenna grounded with thick copper wire then it goes into two 8 foot ground rods into the ground.Some say if you get hit it wont do any good anyway but like you said you never know so mines grounded.Theres a wilson antenna thats a stick antenna and it has a wire for a ground i have one.OR if you have a mag mount its grounded. 
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Rocky Mountain Oyster
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38Special
- Donor
- Posts: 290
- Joined: August 16th, 2006, 10:51 am
Alright! Here's my chance to ask a technical question for all the pro's out there.
If you have a base station then you should have lightning protection, because back in the 70's my old big stick took a few wacks, and I didn't have any grounding at all. I'm a little older, and hopefully wiser now, and with my Antron 99 installation, I grounded the antenna per instructions with a 8' solid copper ground rod, and believe it or not I drove it all the way into the ground until flush. On the bottom of the antenna I also have a lightning arrestor installed-I believe these basically act like a fuse.
Looking around on the net I read in several different sites that you should have all of your base equipment grounded to a common ground. I, like others don't trust the lightning as it travels in strange ways, so I unscrew my PL259 connector and stick it in a glass jar... in case I do take a lightning hit my connector won't be laying on the carpet and set it on fire when the connector sparks/melts/gets hot. If you have a common ground, and you disconnect your antenna, you still run the risk of having lightning damage, especially if there is any resistance in your ground rod, after all lightning travels the route of least resistance. For lightning safety and equipment safety it only makes sense to me to be on a different ground, such as the house ground, or better yet another individual 8" copper ground rod... not the antenna ground. This seems redundant but breaks the connection between the antenna equipment and the radio equipment. Does this make sense? Am I wrong or do you agree? Am I into it too deep???
If you have a base station then you should have lightning protection, because back in the 70's my old big stick took a few wacks, and I didn't have any grounding at all. I'm a little older, and hopefully wiser now, and with my Antron 99 installation, I grounded the antenna per instructions with a 8' solid copper ground rod, and believe it or not I drove it all the way into the ground until flush. On the bottom of the antenna I also have a lightning arrestor installed-I believe these basically act like a fuse.
Looking around on the net I read in several different sites that you should have all of your base equipment grounded to a common ground. I, like others don't trust the lightning as it travels in strange ways, so I unscrew my PL259 connector and stick it in a glass jar... in case I do take a lightning hit my connector won't be laying on the carpet and set it on fire when the connector sparks/melts/gets hot. If you have a common ground, and you disconnect your antenna, you still run the risk of having lightning damage, especially if there is any resistance in your ground rod, after all lightning travels the route of least resistance. For lightning safety and equipment safety it only makes sense to me to be on a different ground, such as the house ground, or better yet another individual 8" copper ground rod... not the antenna ground. This seems redundant but breaks the connection between the antenna equipment and the radio equipment. Does this make sense? Am I wrong or do you agree? Am I into it too deep???-
Amp|-|ibious
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5H Outlaw
I hit a 40,000 volt line going into an ag industrial building years ago. Didn't do a thing to my truck or radio before shutting the whole complex down. But you could feel the electricity everywhere. Was told that I was pretty lucky it all grounded out and that I didn't try to jump from the truck.
Lower the auger, look up and live.
Lower the auger, look up and live.
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coondog
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chopcorejc
