Update on antenna after lightening strike

[Tombstone (R.I.P.)]

I'm in a serious quandry here concerning replacing my CB antenna after the lightening strike. I rent here and we have a female building manager that does repairs like a guy and she has a big mouth and "knows everything". She mentioned to me shortly after the lightening strike that destroyed my antenna that the landlord might not let me replace the antenna and is insinuating that all of the damage to telephones, TV sets, etc. is all my fault. I've been trying to go over her head but can't contact the landlord after a few tries. There's no damage to the chimney that the A99 was mounted on, nor the roof. It seems that my ground did take most of the current before it burned off at the ground rod. There were three simultaneous close strikes within a second or so that day. There's a lady's beauty salon at street level right below me and the girl that runs it saw blue sparks come out of the heating outlet. That's because lightening hit the telephone interface that's mounted on the outside wall and her furnace is directly on the other side. I think that would explain the sparks. Of course the building manager claims that if the furnace motor or electronics are fried that it's my fault. There was a surge that came in through the power line and tripped the breaker that controls half of my radio shack. A surge also came in through the cable TV coax and fried my TV and the convertor box in her apartment: all my fault! Even if I can contact my landlord before she brain washes him and he gives me permission to replace the antenna, I have no way to get to the roof of this three story building except for hiring a bucket truck. The truck of the tree service that I had lined up fell through because he went out of business and the tags on the truck are expired. Even if the landlord cooperates I'll have to save money to rent another truck. With money being tight and all of the other problems going on it may take 'till spring to get back on the air. The only alternative is to move, which I can't afford. I'll be danged if I'll give up my hobby of over fourty years and the only thing that I have left is radio. I'll think of something. I just had to vent somehow, I hope that you guys understand. Browning on!

Tombstone

[Sandbagger]

Sept 16, 2011 16:54:45 GMT -5 Tombstone (R.I.P.) said:

I'm in a serious quandry here concerning replacing my CB antenna after the lightening strike. I rent here and we have a female building manager that does repairs like a guy and she has a big mouth and "knows everything". She mentioned to me shortly after the lightening strike that destroyed my antenna that the landlord might not let me replace the antenna and is insinuating that all of the damage to telephones, TV sets, etc. is all my fault. I've been trying to go over her head but can't contact the landlord after a few tries. There's no damage to the chimney that the A99 was mounted on, nor the roof. It seems that my ground did take most of the current before it burned off at the ground rod. There were three simultaneous close strikes within a second or so that day. There's a lady's beauty salon at street level right below me and the girl that runs it saw blue sparks come out of the heating outlet. That's because lightening hit the telephone interface that's mounted on the outside wall and her furnace is directly on the other side. I think that would explain the sparks. Of course the building manager claims that if the furnace motor or electronics are fried that it's my fault. There was a surge that came in through the power line and tripped the breaker that controls half of my radio shack. A surge also came in through the cable TV coax and fried my TV and the convertor box in her apartment: all my fault! Even if I can contact my landlord before she brain washes him and he gives me permission to replace the antenna, I have no way to get to the roof of this three story building except for hiring a bucket truck. The truck of the tree service that I had lined up fell through because he went out of business and the tags on the truck are expired. Even if the landlord cooperates I'll have to save money to rent another truck. With money being tight and all of the other problems going on it may take 'till spring to get back on the air. The only alternative is to move, which I can't afford. I'll be danged if I'll give up my hobby of over fourty years and the only thing that I have left is radio. I'll think of something. I just had to vent somehow, I hope that you guys understand. Browning on!

Tombstone

Wow, that sucks..... But she may have a very good point. If the lightning struck your antenna and that was the point of entry, then any damage may very well have been caused by the ingress from the antenna. That's why it's important that the ground wire be heavy enough to handle all of the current without melting, so that it shunts to ground that way, and not dance around all the electrical stuff in the building before it finds an alternate path to ground.

Hopefully you'll be able to put another antenna up, but if the manager makes a good case to the landlord, it may be indoor antennas, "stick out the window" or "rain gutter" antennas for you. I know that'll suck badly, but I guess it's better than nothing at all. Hopefully it'll all work out.

[Tombstone (R.I.P.)]

Thanks for the comeback, Sandbagger! I just want everyone to know that when I posted that I wasn't looking for sympathy, I had to vent somehow, ha, ha, I suppose that I could rig a full wave 11 meter wire antenna at ceiling level but this building is brick and I would have an apartment and then an attic above me so considering my low location I'd be lucky to cover the neighborhood. Your idea of mounting a stick antenna is better and I could make a bracket to mount the antenna to the window sill but I'd have to use it in the horizontal position or mount it vertically but then it would be too close to the building. I probably would have matching problems not to mention that I would cause massive RFI. I can't seem to be able to contact the landlord, every time I call I have to leave a message on his voice mail and I never get a call back from him. It looks more and more that I'll have to move unless I finally get permission to put an antenna on the chimney where it was. I'm not giving up my hobby!

Tombstone

[cbrown]

I feel for you, Tombstone. The only thing I've ever found an indoor dipole good for is hanging laundry to dry, ;D

Could your antenna have brought the lightning into the building? Maybe, but id the strike was that close I doubt it. Lightning forks out when it strikes - it's not just one bolt. People usually just see the one bolt because it's so brilliant.

Good luck with your situation!

[Tombstone (R.I.P.)]

Thanks, cbrown! The landlord won't answere my calls when I leave voice mail. If he does call me and allows me to put up another antenna, the weather is going to deteriorate soon and I have to build ip funds to get someone with a bucket truck to put me up there so it looks like I'll be off the air for the winter. Like you say, a full wave wire antenna that's inside is only good for hanging clothes on and I can't mount maybe a Wilson or K40 antenna on the rain gutters because the gutters are old wooden ones and I wouldn't get a ground plane because of that. My only hope is that if the landlord cooperates if I can contact him, have fun!

Tombstone

[homerbb]

It's never ideal to put an antenna indoors, but I have a rectangle loop 12' top and bottom wire, and 6' ends mounted vertically in the attic. Fed at a lower corner it is a direct feed to coax with match. It does surprisingly well. I hear DX and local better than the full wave flat side loop I had up there before. It is vertically polarized.

[cbrown]

Tombstone could give it a try, it would be better than not having any antenna at all.

Good suggestion, Homer!