Your best bet is a lightning arrester type device called a Polyphaser.

You mount it on top of a ground rod, and connect the coax from your 
antenna to one side of it. A second length of coax goes from the other 
side of the Polyphaser to your radio.

Down here in the south, if you don't use such a device with a 
fiberglass antenna, the antenna will build up a static charge, and 
will become vaporized the first time lightning comes anywhere near it.

I know 3 people who learned this fact the hard and rather expensive 
way. Fortunately for me, one of those people is the person who 
installed my antenna 7 years ago.




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "tom behler" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, January 03, 2010 12:56 PM
Subject: grounding question


Hi, all.

As many of you know, I'm planning to put in a ground rod for an HF 
station
earth ground here at the new home QTH in Colorado if I can get the 
weather
to co-operate, and be above freezing for a while.

However, in thinking about grounding, I have another question.

My VHF/UHF antenna here at the new house is a Diamond X200A.  It is 
mounted
with a bracket to the side of the house, just below the roof line. 
The coax
for that antenna runs from the feedpoint, around the house, and into 
the
feed-through panel at the shack window.

How do you ground an antenna like this for lightning protection?

I suppose that, when summer thunderstorms approach, I could simply
disconnect the antenna, and hope for the best, but I wonder what 
others have
tried.  There are no grounding instructions provided with the antenna
itself.

See everyone on the Cross-country Blind Ops Net in a couple of hours!

73 from Tom Behler:  KB8TYJ


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