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Inssomniak
The Glitch
Premium Member
join:2005-04-06
Cayuga, ON

1 recommendation

Inssomniak

Premium Member

Lightning doesn't hit the same place twice my ass

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Im getting tired of replacing antennas at this site, lol--

treich
join:2006-12-12

treich

Member

All I got to say is dam is that a Omni antenna?

Inssomniak
The Glitch
Premium Member
join:2005-04-06
Cayuga, ON

Inssomniak

Premium Member

said by treich:

All I got to say is dam is that a Omni antenna?

Standard issue Laird tech vertical 12db omni. Second one at this site to get it, and the radio attached to it, along with a back haul radio to another site. The other rocket m5 back haul didn't like the extra jolt and simply rebooted. The router board 433 that tied it all together didn't miss a beat and continued at 103 days uptime.

robbin
Mod
join:2000-09-21
Leander, TX

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Did you do anything to improve the ground system after the first strike?

John Galt6
Forward, March
Premium Member
join:2004-09-30
Happy Camp

1 recommendation

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You might like this:

vimeo.com/45803576


vimeo.com/45802701


vimeo.com/30577412


These videos are shot at ~7,200 FPS...
OHSrob
join:2011-06-08

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Wow that's a nasty strike was your switch port ok ?

Inssomniak
The Glitch
Premium Member
join:2005-04-06
Cayuga, ON

Inssomniak

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Click for full size
said by OHSrob:

Wow that's a nasty strike was your switch port ok ?

Yup it was directly tied to the RB433, all ports fine.

Here is last years pic
public
join:2002-01-19
Santa Clara, CA

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said by Inssomniak:

Im getting tired of replacing antennas at this site, lol--

The omni is not rated as an air terminal. Perhaps it may be cost effective to install a proper lightning protection system.

Inssomniak
The Glitch
Premium Member
join:2005-04-06
Cayuga, ON

Inssomniak

Premium Member

said by public:

said by Inssomniak:

Im getting tired of replacing antennas at this site, lol--

The omni is not rated as an air terminal. Perhaps it may be cost effective to install a proper lightning protection system.

Yea I probably should.. But with the amount of time in my world I don't have, who am I trying to kid, it probably will never happen. Who else thinks that sounds familiar.?
Jim_in_VA (banned)
join:2004-07-11
Cobbs Creek, VA

Jim_in_VA (banned)

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this guy: »www.nydailynews.com/news ··· .1117559
voxframe
join:2010-08-02

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OUCH!!!!

So far we *knock on wood* haven't had any strike problems this year. Plenty of power outages though. For instance I have 4 POPs running on battery since yesterday, and 1 generator site running.

So the clients are still happy, and those who aren't connecting, don't have power anyway.

Semaphore
Premium Member
join:2003-11-18
101010

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Trade you a lightning strike for a (unconfirmed) tornado and 20+ hours without power

Inssomniak
The Glitch
Premium Member
join:2005-04-06
Cayuga, ON

Inssomniak

Premium Member

said by Semaphore:

Trade you a lightning strike for a (unconfirmed) tornado and 20+ hours without power

I don't need to trade you ! Ive had that too. 2am driving to fill generators up with gas, yea, I know, not fun.

lol

Semaphore
Premium Member
join:2003-11-18
101010

Semaphore

Premium Member

Thankfully I've spent the past few months converting sites to 24 vDC, using Tycon's smart charger + 2 deep cycle batteries so most of my important sites (that aren't already solar/wind) now have ~40 hours run time.... beats the (bleep) outta APC UPS's, but doesn't help with the Tornado's though - three unconfirmed now. Time to start looking at that Storm cellar me thinks

Cheers,
S
gunther_01
Premium Member
join:2004-03-29
Saybrook, IL

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There used to be a time when people said the PAC/Laird omni's weren't DC grounded. We had switched to Comets and some other brands during that time because of the unwanted RX side of our radio cards blowing out a bunch. The brand switch seemed to help with that issue.

Of note we install PolyPhasers on all of our omni's now also (well, for years now). That seems to help also. But last year we took a hit to a brand new UBNT omni (like 2 weeks old, didn't even have a customer on it yet) Blew that thing apart, and took out the whole site pretty much. Yuck.

treich
join:2006-12-12

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So any info to help protect Ubnt Omni and the rocket setup? besides using SFTP cat5 cable?
thewisperer
Premium Member
join:2008-01-16

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I have three of those on top of 10 stories high and in four years no problems

They are ungrounded "floating" and I have removed surge supp. on coax also.

My fingers and toes are crossed.

Inssomniak
The Glitch
Premium Member
join:2005-04-06
Cayuga, ON

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said by treich:

So any info to help protect Ubnt Omni and the rocket setup? besides using SFTP cat5 cable?

The site is a lost cause for lightning.

I just budget new equipment for it twice a year, lol--
I have lots of omnis up on grain legs and silos with likely worse grounding and only one other site had only one hit. Well, it was more like an explosion, as in, I never even found most of that site's pieces.
gunther_01
Premium Member
join:2004-03-29
Saybrook, IL

1 recommendation

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Grain legs and silo's are typically considered at near ground potential because of the amount of underground re-bar in the concrete and also how the structure is attached to multiple concrete pads with said re-bar. Even more so with concrete grain elevators, where it is claimed that they are at ground potential.

The KEY to lightning suppression is everything needs to be bonded at the same point. (I know there are much smarter people here than me, no need to get the lightning suppression book out, it's a general rule to bond everything to one point, but overlooked by many ) The other thing is you want that ground in place. You are trying to let the static dissipate, not build up between devices. I think you are asking for trouble not having a coax ground/shield in place (on many levels). Likewise not having a surge suppressor inline leaves your center pin unprotected.

A few things I know about grain elevators (commercial ones) Grain legs are built and anchored in to the concrete that is typically 2-3+ feet thick and typically already 10+ feet underground.
Electrical conduit that is used for the power feeds is used as a bonding method for the motors and such. Those conduits are bolted to the grain leg and other places, allowing for your bonds to be utilized at the leg structure... Everything there is metal except the grain leg buckets and spout/trunk linings. You are hard pressed to not find a good ground (relative, but fairly true).. case in point when we weld on the facility anywhere, we just attached the ground lead to a bolt on almost anything at ground level, we then had hundreds of feet of welding lead and could weld anywhere at the facility.

As for the UBNT rocket and Omni... Keep spares. They are cheap to replace. You will spend almost the same on two surge suppressors (with no guarantees) than what you would on a spare Rocket. If you get hit(s), evaluate your grounds, and structure.

Insomniak, you have a grounding issue there at that structure most likely. PM me if you would like, I can prob help. I spent a lot of time working at grain elevators for a living.

I have some theoretical storms coming tonight, so I may be busy tomorrow LOL

Inssomniak
The Glitch
Premium Member
join:2005-04-06
Cayuga, ON

Inssomniak

Premium Member

said by gunther_01:

I have some theoretical storms coming tonight, so I may be busy tomorrow LOL

OK thanks! But as you just said, storms just rolled thru here last night for us again, and another site is out, this time a key PoP serving hundreds of customers

superdog
I Need A Drink
MVM
join:2001-07-13
Lebanon, PA

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said by public:

The omni is not rated as an air terminal. Perhaps it may be cost effective to install a proper lightning protection system.

As I started to read this thread, I knew that you would reply and mention the air terminal, Lol. While I do agree with you that installing one is the correct thing to do, I have said this before, and I will say it again, I just don't see any practical way to install one and not have the pattern of the omni get messed up because of the metal brace holding up terminal being so close to the omni itself?

Even when installing an omni on a tower leg and using a standoff bracket, you still have some disruption of the signal and strange things seem to happen to the signal pattern on the opposite side of the tower. If it could be done with only a minimal signal degradation, I think I would try it?

I do not claim to know everything and if my thought process is incorrect, please tell me. You can always learn something and perhaps in this situation, I will?
public
join:2002-01-19
Santa Clara, CA

public

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said by superdog:

Even when installing an omni on a tower leg and using a standoff bracket, you still have some disruption of the signal and strange things seem to happen to the signal pattern on the opposite side of the tower. If it could be done with only a minimal signal degradation, I think I would try it?

The longer the extension is, the smaller the disruption will be. Offset it near the top, where the tower is thinnest. Some pattern degradation is better than replacing omnis.