[Waverley ARS] Amateur radio antenna close to TV antenna

[Mathias Burbach]

Hello Brad,

Thanks for your reply.

Brad wrote:
> Are TV antenna masts usually earthed?  The few that I have seen have 
> not been earthed.
I would say so. At least in Germany it is mandatory and your building 
fire damage insurance won't pay for any fire after a lightening if it 
turns out that the antenna was not earthed.
> I suspect that providing a nice earth path to ground is only asking 
> for lighting to strike?  Should lightning strike in close proximity, I 
> doubt that the earth wire would be able to provide totally protect 
> delicate electronic equipment? And these may be destroyed in any 
> case.  In case of a direct lightning strike I think that the presence 
> of an earth wire would be of little benefit.
I have seen big earth wires and a long metal stick (called electrode 
?!?) in the ground at Herby's place (VK2NHB). Is he just over-cautious?
> I would like to find a way of having something automatically sense the 
> presence of an electrical storm and trip an antenna relay switching 
> the antenna to earth rather than to the transceiver when my remote 
> station is setup.  Does everyone disconnect their transceivers when a 
> lightning storm passes through their QTH?
>
> Mathias you have started an interesting topic.
Yeah, please let's have some more comments from the club community.

Salut,
  Mathias