[Kenwood] Lightning protection wire antennas WA8OPR

Wed May 14 12:11:53 EDT 2014

Right..... (done in my best Bill Cosby voice imitation) roflmao
Bill
K7BVO
---- Pete Lascell <plascell at verizon.net> wrote: 
> If a lightning bolt can travel thousands of feet down to ground thru open 
> air, do you think 2.5 inches will slow it down?
>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Terry Clinard" <tclinard at hotmail.com>
> To: <kenwood at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2014 11:25 AM
> Subject: [Kenwood] Lightning protection wire antennas WA8OPR
>>> > Can someone answer this question:
> >
> >
> >
> > I have two 170 foot end feed wires in service for the bands. Both are up 
> > at the top of tree line about 55 foot up.
> >
> >
> >
> > Decided to purchase two old style heavy duty knife switches with porcelain 
> > bases. The gap between the heavy duty copper contacts is a bout 2.5 
> > inches.
> >
> >
> >
> > The live end of the antenna wire is attached to the center knife rocker 
> > and one of the side psots is connected to the transceiver. Obviously when 
> > the knife switch is opened it disconnects the antenna. My question is 
> > should the opposite knife post be attached to an earth ground? This then 
> > puts the wire in the air directly to ground. Now with the antenna going 
> > to true ground raises the negative potential of the wire in the air. I am 
> > thinking that one does not want to do this, because now you have created a 
> > high (55 foot) negative conductive path for lightning to target. Should 
> > the antenna be grounded or simply turned off with the 2.5" knife switch 
> > air gap?
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks Terry WA8OPR
> >
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