Hi Phil.

Unfortunately,
there aren't any guarantees when it comes to lightning.  I have had direct 
lightning strikes on my amateur radio station twice.  The first time, 
lightning hit my mast with my 70 cm Quagi at 45 ft.  Surprisingly, the 
antenna survived, although the antenna rotator was totaled.  I also damaged 
a Kenwood TS130S, which was disconnected but lost a voltage regulator and a 
microphone driver transistor anyway.

The second time I got hit was just last year when I took a hit on my 
G5RV.  Strangely, it wasn't my highest antenna, being only 25 ft. in the 
air.  Both my GAP Titan and the VHF/UHF antennas are higher.  The one set 
of VHF/UHF beams caught one fork, but the Tri-band Comet on the mast that 
supports one end of the G5RV was untouched, and the GAP which should have 
been an ideal target was also untouched.  Go figure.

The second strike was more costly in monetary terms, as I had another 
totaled rotator, most of my coax had to be replaced, a couple of antennas 
had to be replaced, and a GE Super Radio 2 that just happened to be in the 
shack got fried.  Surprisingly, none of the amateur radio transceivers or 
receivers were damaged.  However, I had a surge protector that exploded, 
and all of the plugs were welded into the power strip that the rotor 
control box was plugged into.  There were flash marks on the case of the 
computer that was also plugged into that strip, and the telephone and DSL 
filter in the ham shack were fried.  Miraculously, when I put a new cord on 
the computer, it booted up and I've never had a problem with it since the 
strike.  Apparently all of the energy stayed on the surface of the case.

The point is that the power strip that got blasted was unplugged from the 
wall.  The coax cables were all disconnected.  The radios were all 
unplugged and disconnected.  And my antennas are no higher than your R7, 
and I still took a hit.  It's one of the risks you live with.  My advice is 
to put good lightning protection on the antennas with good grounding and 
realize that even houses with no antennas on them sometimes get hit.  It's 
not a very safe world that we live in.

Thankfully, in your story and mine, no one was seriously injured or killed, 
and as for the monetary damage, that's what they have insurance for.

73, de Lou K2LKK


At 11:05 PM 10/21/2006 -0600, you wrote:
>I sent this to the wrong list first.
>
>
> > Several years ago, after fiddling around with two 18AVQ verticals on my
> > roof, separated by 60 feet and fed broadside, I gave up.  I discovered to
> > two dad blamed verticals were not mechanically identical.  I discovered
>this
> > by taking them down, putting them side by side, and starting from the
> > bottom, feeling my way inch by inch up the tubing.  I discovered they were
> > slightly made differently.  I did get them to work but I could never get
> > them to match at 3800 where I wanted them.  So, I figured, well, shoot, I
> > don't have any rotating antennas on top of, at that time, my 55 foot tower
> > so pick the best of the two verticals, and put it up there.  I cuts 17
> > radials, each, 65 feet or longer, got the vertical on top of the tower,
> > which I discovered I needed help doing so a friend helped, and started
> > stringing the wires out and tying them to trees, fence posts, the house,
>and
> > every thing I could find.  It was August the first that day.  I fired up
>on
> > 75 meters that night and the antenna, at 55 feet, with that much wire
>under
> > it, was a canon.  Hot dog!  I can't wait until the band builds up for the
> > winter DX season.  Two weeks later, a friend came over, he isn't a ham,
>and
> > worked on my computer.  We were standing in the very room I am in right
>now.
> > My antenna was disconnected, all my antennas were grounded, and as we
> > talked, my friend, who was born in Colorado said, Man, I've never seen a
> > lightning storm like this before.  It was a dry lightning storm.  I could
> > hear thunder rolling off the mountains but it was still far off.  The
> > lightning wasn't, far off, that is.  There is a question in this story so
> > keep reading.  I'm leaning against my metal desk talking to my friend.  My
> > grounding switch with the antennas all switched to ground, was three feet
> > away.  Suddenly, my ears popped and switched off.  I thought I had heard a
> > small pop in the room.  My ears rang but I could hear enough to talk and
> > communicate.  The man's wife had just walked into my office to see if we
> > were about done when she saw the flash over on the coax switch but she
>also
> > said she saw a flash of light behind my equipment.  Wonderful.  She
>reached
> > over and grabbed my arm and said, Get away from there.  Every breaker in
>my
> > breaker box had tripped.  My ground rod is about 5 feet from the breaker
> > box.  It hit my 18AVQ at 55 feet, blew the top three feet off, which was
>the
> > 80 meter coil and whip sections, and from the energy build up in the room,
> > popped a couple of diodes in my ten tec transceiver.  It also burned up
>one
> > telephone and a few light bulbs throughout the house.  The coax connectors
> > at either end of the RG8 running to the vertical were burn black.  So, I
>now
> > have the R7 and normally use it on my roof at about 15 feet.  I have,
>bolted
> > to the back of my home, a 50 foot tower that had a two meter and 70
> > centimeter 26 foot diamond antenna.  We have high winds in January and
> > February but this last season, was ridiculous.  That dumb 400 dollar two
> > meter 70 CM antenna didn't survive.  Makes me mad.  So, I both a shorter
> > diamond dual bander and put it on the roof for safe keeping.  So my
>question
> > is, I know this was an unusual storm but I am a little gun shy now about
> > putting my R7 up on my 50 foot tower.  I've talked with guys with R7
> > verticals on 40 foot towers and shoot, all our repeaters around Denver are
> > on 9 and 10 and 11 thousand foot mountains.  So I keep trying to talk
>myself
> > into putting the vertical on this tower.  What do you think?  I like the
> > idea because of not having to string radials all over the property.  What
>I
> > am more afraid of is that the vertical won't take the wind more than it
>will
> > be hit by lightning.
> >
> > Phil.
> > K0NX

Louis Kim Kline
A.R.S. K2LKK
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Work Telephone:  (585) 697-5753