TO:    ALL WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS AMATEURS
       ALL NON-WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS AMATEURS
FROM:  KEN HARRIS WA8LLM
       WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS INCORPORATED

WOOD COUNTY BULLETIN NR 15.05          DATE: February 1, 2015
SUBJECT: PREVENTING LIGHTENING DAMAGE

We can never be too safe when preparing our station against lightening.  It has a way of reaching out to touch someone, or something, like your hamshack.  Even while their equipment and antennas were totally grounded, Amateurs have reported stations being destroyed by a lightening strike over a mile away. Grounding alone will not protect your station from lightening, although it will greatly improve the odds.  Other precautions must be taken to assure the safety of your equipment.

To further protect our stations, we should disconnect all coax cables from radios, TV's, and anything else which has a cable entering from outside, and lay the ends away from all equipment.  Never let telephone cables, wires, etc. lay near speaker cables, coax cables, power cables, or any cables still interconnected to your equipment.  All computers and their attachments should be disconnected from AC outlets.  A good idea is to have all your equipment, computers and all, on a power buss system that you can disconnect by removing one plug.

This may seem like a great amount of work, but the more you isolate your equipment from any outside line source, the better you will survive a direct or even nearby hit from lightening.  If you haven't taken any of these precautions before, think about it.  Your luck may be about to run out!

Ken Harris WA8LLM
WCEC
Wood County WV