[bars] Lightning, You cant protect against a direct hit.

[gmm]

In 2004, A  tree in my yard about 100 feet from my house took a direct hit.
A kid living 2 houses away was playing with his Nitendo at the time the 
strike, and got Zapped and Nitendo fried.  He was ok.

My 50 foot tower of  roln 45 must have caught some of the strike.
I did have an 8 foot grounding rod and #8 gauge wire, etc.
My tower grounding system met the minimum requirements.
The house and radio grounds were Separate.

The short story is, the energy in a "very close hit", is too much for be 
dissipate by a tower AND #8 gauge wire.
Its like a 24 inch water pipe [The lightning bolt], trying to fit into a 
Quarter inch diameter wire / water drain pipe.
The drain pipe just cant handle the volume of a 12 water pipe full of water.
It will still take time to drain out the water/power.
While power is "Waiting" to drain down you tower (we are talking about 
nano seconds) and ground wire, some power/energy will start searching 
for every other ground in your house that it can find.
{Lightning / electricity will travel 1 foot per nano second and a strike 
can last up to a Half Second}

My ground system did work!
The House did not burn down!
The flaming equipment did not come in contact with other flammable 
materials.
There are burn marks on my wooden radio table, etc.
My radio station melted!
Everything connected to my RJ-45 internet fried.
Everything connected to my cable box fried.

Later, I did up date my grounding system a bit.
I now have a 200 foot ground wire[tower], with 8 foot steaks every 20 
feet, leading away from the tower.
The house ground also has a longer under ground wire and more steaks.

I had a home owners Personal Property replacement option for $100 per year.
It cost 16,000 to replace my radio station.
It cost me $500 out of pocket.


Moral of the story:
Install the best ground system that you can afford.
And get Personal Property replacement option!


Miles