On Thu, 04 Jun 2009 06:29:27 -0400, Wizard of Woodstock
wrote:

When I had my towers, I went through a whole bunch of gas discharge
connectors one summer and finally had New England Tower come over
and completely redo the ground system - buried a lot of #10 copper
wire in a grid, staked with 8 foot ground rods and each leg of each
tower was hard bonded to the grid. That helped a lot - the number of
strikes the following year went down significantly.

Don't ask me why.

I believe there's a theory that a good grounding system will bleed off
accumulated charge before the voltage gets high enough to initiate a
leader stroke.

On Jun 3, 8:56*pm, wrote:
On Wed, 3 Jun 2009 16:22:57 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch

wrote:
Last year, I stopped using computer during a storm even though we have
a surge protector. *FLASH-Bang and a huge spark jumps from the
computer housing to the grounded outlet, HUH? *made no sense to me but
it cured me of wanting to use computer during storms.

Beef up your point of entry surge protection and make sure the cable
and telephone company are bonding to your electrical service ground
electrode system.
When I was working for IBM (Ft Myers) we designed protective systems
for our customers who were not willing to stop working just because it
was raining outside.
We went from a half dozen lightning damage calls a day to less than 3
a summer.
Grounding, bonding and surge protection is the difference.

Take a look at the products at:
http://www.deltala.com/products.htm

We use them to protect the building at work (an electronics design,
manufacturing and software house), and a lot of us have used them to
protect our houses and wells. Reasonably priced, easy to install, and
they work.

Like others have pointed out, nearly nothing can protect you from a
direct hit.

I have been to the top of a mountain in northern California, where
there was a three story fire watch building with a bunch of radio
equipment and a microwave shot back down to the valley. The top the
building was pretty much wrapped with metal fencing that was all
bonded together, with wires running down all four corners. These
wires continued out from the building and into a big grounding scheme
that covered a large area. The idea is that not if, but *when* the
building was struck, everything in the building rose up to the same
potential, and then bled off into the mountain. It's the difference
in potential (voltage) that kills equipment.

Oh yeah, this thing was manned during the summer. Wow!!

On Jun 4, 9:18*am, wrote:
On Jun 3, 8:56*pm, wrote:





On Wed, 3 Jun 2009 16:22:57 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch

wrote:
Last year, I stopped using computer during a storm even though we have
a surge protector. *FLASH-Bang and a huge spark jumps from the
computer housing to the grounded outlet, HUH? *made no sense to me but
it cured me of wanting to use computer during storms.

Beef up your point of entry surge protection and make sure the cable
and telephone company are bonding to your electrical service ground
electrode system.
When I was working for IBM (Ft Myers) we designed protective systems
for our customers who were not willing to stop working just because it
was raining outside.
We went from a half dozen lightning damage calls a day to less than 3
a summer.
Grounding, bonding and surge protection is the difference.

Take a look at the products at:http://www.deltala.com/products.htm

We use them to protect the building at work (an electronics design,
manufacturing and software house), and a lot of us have used them to
protect our houses and wells. *Reasonably priced, easy to install, and
they work.

Like others have pointed out, nearly nothing can protect you from a
direct hit.

I have been to the top of a mountain in northern California, where
there was a three story fire watch building with a bunch of radio
equipment and a microwave shot back down to the valley. *The top the
building was pretty much wrapped with metal fencing that was all
bonded together, with wires running down all four corners. *These
wires continued out from the building and into a big grounding scheme
that covered a large area. *The idea is that not if, but *when* the
building was struck, everything in the building rose up to the same
potential, and then bled off into the mountain. *It's the difference
in potential (voltage) that kills equipment.

Oh yeah, this thing was manned during the summer. *Wow!!- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yeah, but thunder storms aren't common there. My wife and in-laws are
from the bay area, and they go for years sometimes without a
thunderstorm.

On Jun 4, 9:23*am, wrote:
On Jun 4, 9:18*am, wrote:





On Jun 3, 8:56*pm, wrote:

On Wed, 3 Jun 2009 16:22:57 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch

wrote:
Last year, I stopped using computer during a storm even though we have
a surge protector. *FLASH-Bang and a huge spark jumps from the
computer housing to the grounded outlet, HUH? *made no sense to me but
it cured me of wanting to use computer during storms.

Beef up your point of entry surge protection and make sure the cable
and telephone company are bonding to your electrical service ground
electrode system.
When I was working for IBM (Ft Myers) we designed protective systems
for our customers who were not willing to stop working just because it
was raining outside.
We went from a half dozen lightning damage calls a day to less than 3
a summer.
Grounding, bonding and surge protection is the difference.

Take a look at the products at:http://www.deltala.com/products.htm

We use them to protect the building at work (an electronics design,
manufacturing and software house), and a lot of us have used them to
protect our houses and wells. *Reasonably priced, easy to install, and
they work.

Like others have pointed out, nearly nothing can protect you from a
direct hit.

I have been to the top of a mountain in northern California, where
there was a three story fire watch building with a bunch of radio
equipment and a microwave shot back down to the valley. *The top the
building was pretty much wrapped with metal fencing that was all
bonded together, with wires running down all four corners. *These
wires continued out from the building and into a big grounding scheme
that covered a large area. *The idea is that not if, but *when* the
building was struck, everything in the building rose up to the same
potential, and then bled off into the mountain. *It's the difference
in potential (voltage) that kills equipment.

Oh yeah, this thing was manned during the summer. *Wow!!- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yeah, but thunder storms aren't common there. My wife and in-laws are
from the bay area, and they go for years sometimes without a
thunderstorm.

That may be true in the bay area, but the guys that worked there (this
was state forestry) said that they took hits several times a year.
Oh, and this was northeastern. I flew into Reno and drove an hour or
so.

On Jun 4, 10:28*am, wrote:
On Thu, 4 Jun 2009 06:18:59 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
On Jun 3, 8:56*pm, wrote:
On Wed, 3 Jun 2009 16:22:57 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch

wrote:
Last year, I stopped using computer during a storm even though we have
a surge protector. *FLASH-Bang and a huge spark jumps from the
computer housing to the grounded outlet, HUH? *made no sense to me but
it cured me of wanting to use computer during storms.

Beef up your point of entry surge protection and make sure the cable
and telephone company are bonding to your electrical service ground
electrode system.
When I was working for IBM (Ft Myers) we designed protective systems
for our customers who were not willing to stop working just because it
was raining outside.
We went from a half dozen lightning damage calls a day to less than 3
a summer.
Grounding, bonding and surge protection is the difference.

Take a look at the products at:
http://www.deltala.com/products.htm

We use them to protect the building at work (an electronics design,
manufacturing and software house), and a lot of us have used them to
protect our houses and wells. *Reasonably priced, easy to install, and
they work.

Like others have pointed out, nearly nothing can protect you from a
direct hit.

I have been to the top of a mountain in northern California, where
there was a three story fire watch building with a bunch of radio
equipment and a microwave shot back down to the valley. *The top the
building was pretty much wrapped with metal fencing that was all
bonded together, with wires running down all four corners. *These
wires continued out from the building and into a big grounding scheme
that covered a large area. *The idea is that not if, but *when* the
building was struck, everything in the building rose up to the same
potential, and then bled off into the mountain. *It's the difference
in potential (voltage) that kills equipment.

Oh yeah, this thing was manned during the summer. *Wow!!

The lightning rod on the mast with my weather station has been hit at
least twice that I know of and the only thing I lost was the serial
port in the PC it is connected to.
I was in the driveway once when it hit, very exciting.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I want to get a semi-decent weather station. Any recommendations?

On Wed, 3 Jun 2009 05:07:03 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

The real trick is to be able to read the clouds

Or buy a hand held Barometer......

$900 for a radar.

Casady

On Wed, 3 Jun 2009 12:07:32 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

You could also go out in
the fields after a good one and find where the lighting had hit the
ground and turned the sand into glass. Wasn't pretty glass, but it was
glass.

They call the bit a glass a fulgerite.

Casady

On Jun 5, 12:14*pm, wrote:
On Thu, 4 Jun 2009 07:45:44 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
The lightning rod on the mast with my weather station has been hit at
least twice that I know of and the only thing I lost was the serial
port in the PC it is connected to.
I was in the driveway once when it hit, very exciting.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I want to get a semi-decent weather station. Any recommendations?

I have a LaCrosse 2310 and it is a fairly good consumer grade unit but
no match for a "real" one
My wind speed sensor is currently on the blink. I replaced the little
propeller unit with no joy.http://esteroriverheights.com/esteroweather.jpg

Thanks, I'll check it out! Radio Shack has some fair ones, but for
stuff like that, they're usually priced pretty high.