to ground or not to ground equipment

[ncpilot]

So... to add more viewpoints to the question of whether grounding is worthwhile or not...

Just got my first ARES newsletter from ARRL, and here'e a couple of quotes from people that have experienced close by or direct strikes:

"I received this kind condolence note from fellow Northern Florida ARES Net member John Reynolds, W4IJJ: "Sorry to hear about your loss. I just wanted to tell you that even though you might unplug your gear, the EMP from the strike will destroy your equipment. I have sustained several hits and found damage to equipment just laying on a shelf. On one occasion, the pulse was so strong, the induced currents melted the wire tie which was wrapped around a loaf of bread, exploded my G6 vertical, killed the front end of an IC28H which was laying on my work bench and blew a hole in a burner eye on the stove. That strike was 100 feet away to a pine tree! Good luck on getting your gear repaired."

And one more: "Sorry to hear about your lightning strike. I too went through a similar experience several years ago: I had a direct strike to the tower, which hit my Ringo Ranger. The tuning stub on it was rectangular and it turned into a circle. I had all coax and rigs unplugged - the lightning came in on the ground attached to the rigs. I lost my ICOM HF rig and 2 meter all-mode rig. The big question is to ground or not to ground? Now, I unplug and disconnect all the time. - Steve Morgan, W4NHO, Owensboro, Kentucky"

[port1]

   Oh, man!  This topic has had it's fair share of interest, and no less it's related controversies. 
Unless one spends thousands on a sophisticated lighting protection system designed specifically by a professional to dissipate direct lightning strikes (like those on a high-rise building), your equipment will be toast with a direct hit.
I still maintain that stray static and errant voltages from nearby, indirect lightning surges can be dissipated by proper grounding, also known as earthing, to an outdoor weather station mount.  Some decent protection = YES.  Guaranteed direct strike protection = NO.  Better than nothing = ABSOLUTELY.
 

Henry

[chief-david]

For those who don't remember:

Our old equipment was struck by lightning a few years ago. It took out the station, the mounted projector and the video card on the local computer.  That was when I started asking the same question.

Considering it left black marks on a block wall.

http://weather.sms.rdale.org/about.htm

I came to the conclusion that unless there was great insurance, it was not worth it.
I don't think the grounding mechanism of my directv would make a difference either.


The school had too large of a deductible to make a claim.

[ncpilot]

I just wanted to show some real world experiences... for those that are overly optimistic about protection saving everything...

More, as I had mentioned in another post regarding EMP--the first quoted person had equipment destroyed by EMP...

I agree with you, something reasonable makes sense--it just seems too many people equate that with total protection from a direct strike...

Just a reality check... 

[GvlSkywarnNCS]

Referring to the ARRL Newsletter mention you'll notice his ground was bonded to the house ground. This is as required by code but I won't make that bond unless there's RF in the shack and I can't fix it any other way. Something the engineers missed thinking about this one is that bonding all grounds gives the currents you're trying to dissapate a direct low impedende path to everything grounded or plugged in to the AC outlets inside your house Their logic is based on thinking about the differing ground potential between seperate grounds but I posit that this is less likely to cause harm than doing it my way. The differing ground potential might get you a mild shock like static from a carpet but little more than that if both grounds are good.

And like already stated anything is better than nothing- just think about all the paths into your house and what you need to do with them as you try to sledge a brass rod through the granite boulder you just discovered  

Phil

[Pick]

The best one I ever saw, was this up in Ohio: A 150 foot tower with fiberglass half wave antenna blown to smithereens. Antenna relay melted in Motorola Micor low band base station. The 120 VAC line cord was melted.

I replaced the antenna relay and line cord. The station worked fine, no other problems! Amazing!

Of course the antenna and feedline were also replaced.

Lightning is much more damaging here in Florida, than it was up north.