Overview
1 Unfortunately, the real world environment for radio transmitter stations is one where periodic lightning storms occur and cause some finite incidence of antenna and power line strikes. The actual strike incidence will vary widely with general geographic location and is also affected by the local topography, the height of the transmitter mast and the routing of the incoming power lines.
1.1 Unless definite precautions are taken, such strikes can cause transmitter damage, particularly to the final RF amplifier and the AC line rectifiers therein. A superbly reliable transmitter in the laboratory environment could become very vulnerable in the real world situation, except in the remote northern regions where lightning is non-existent.
1.2 This technical note presents a simplified summary of lightning data from several technical source in a manner that permits a quantized approach to the problem. It then goes on to discuss protection principles, and concludes with definite system recommendations. This note is not intended as a rigorous treatise on lightning because such is not helpful for the intended task of deducing engineering solutions. Also, where source data is conflicting, judgmental decisions have been made without discussion by the author.
