About 10 years ago, my Hamilton Rangemaster took a direct lightning strike. In addition to losing the transmitter, the hit took out everything connected to it ... including my pc, and several components in my elaborate audio chain. My homeowners eventually covered the loss ... but it was a lengthy process and I was off-air for several weeks. Essentially, I had to start over, from scratch.
In an effort to prevent a recurrence, I did the following:
Purchased the little FM transmitter from CC Crane and fed the output of my system into IT. The FM signal (nice & clean) is picked up by my Yamaha FM receiver on the other side of the room. The output of the Yamaha is now what feeds the Hamilton ... and the audio quality is suburb. Should there be another lightning strike .. it may demolish the Hamilton ... and the Yamaha ... but will likely end there, as there is no longer any 'direct' connection between my studio and transmitter. Hope you'll find the information useful.
Do you live in Florida?
NOPE .... NY State.
This experience just illustrates the risks of an outoor set up. A 10 foot metal rod and a good ground....a recipe for disaster.
Mark
Life is a recipe for disaster when not properly approached.
Ha!.. Guess I should have approaced it better.
I looked up that CC Crane transmitter. So I guess if you do that you can say you broadcast on FM and AM. Hmm.
Pondering your lightening strike theory. If both pieces of equipment are plugged into anything in the house I would think it fair game to a lightening strike. I've never had lightening take out radio gear yet, but I have had it take out other sensitive electronics.
I'll never forget it ... it blew the Rangemaster into little pieces like it was hit by a cruise missile ... and took out nearly everything in my studio. That being said ... it affected nothing else within my household. Only those components connected directly to the transmitter via wire … audio & power.
This experience just illustrates the risks of an outoor set up. A 10 foot metal rod and a good ground....a recipe for disaster.
Not so sure about that, for almost the last 50 years the National Parks (as well as state highways) have been using these kind of setups consistently and rather exstensively, even now, and it doesn't appear there's been much of a problem with lightning damage thus far.
Not to mention the thousands of licensed radio stations. If the grounding is good damage will be minimal to non-existant. For the licensed guys lightening rarely does anything and when it does they know its time to check out the grounding situation. Our part 15 setups typically aren't lucky enough to enjoy the level of lightening protection that exists for licensed broadcasters.
sometimes it depends where you are.
We were at our previous house for 24
years and lightning strikes never
came very close to the house. There were some whoppers within a mile or
two, but never nearer.
I guess it was terrain. I had an
AMT-3000 ground mounted with a
9 foot plus stick and 16 radials with
no problems. It was out in the backyard
for several years. I was lucky.
For whatever it's worth. There
were a lot of goofy problems at that
property, but there were no strikes.
Brooce, Part 15, Hartford
P.S. (Whatever that means.) I did TV and
FM BCB dxing there, but it didn't work out
very well. It was fun nevertheless.
ALSO for a time I used a C Crane FM
STL. The receiver was a Technics
ST-9030. Carl over at KDX also has
the same receiver. And he uses a C Crane
FM transmitter sometimes, too, also -
as a link - I think.
ALPB Chairman Bob said: "Life is a recipe for disaster when not properly approached."
But what is the proper approach to life?
Join the ALPB and find out.
Our LPFM antenna is mounted on a 140 foot metal pole at the 85 foot level. The pole is grounded with a 5 ohm Delta Ground configuration. Each leg of the ground system consists of a 20 foot ground rod. All connections are CAD welded. The ground conductor is #2. Also a nearby chainlink fence is bonded to the system as well.
In my area of central Florida we can expect on average 90 thunderstorm days a year making it the hottest spot in the western hemisphere. You can not fully appreciate lightning until you have spent a summer here. LOL!
That being said, the pole has been directly hit 3 times that I am aware of with no damage to the transmitter, processor, BARIX, cable modem and EAS decoder all housed in a cabinet at the base of the pole.
That's impressive.
Brooce Part 15 Hartford
Hi Carl