LIGHTNING STRIKES AGAIN.

I jest of course. The truth is precisely as I have stated, much nicer property by a country mile and yet so much smaller a garden. Sadly, we get no younger and Fiona has respectfully requested no dangly bits!!! and plus, the old dreaded parish council as another member so rightly pointed out. If another member knows of a better vertical that is perfectly tunable via something like a YT-1200 etc I will more than happily research it. Even embrace it. The Comet really is the best I have so far come up with that fits the bill. Hey, nobody has guided my ignorance regards my choice of CB rig yet...the CRT 9900. Obviously I am allowed to go export mode etc but...is there better? OH NO...another can of worms.  . As always, I really am so glad I found you guys and all the help is overwhelming. I feel privileged frankly.

Can of worms big can at that lol.
When i first returned to radio after a 26 year brake i bought the CTR-9900.
Hated it too small and too many multifunction buttons making it so easy to mess up but that is just my opinion on that model.

The 6900 and 7900 to me are a bit easier to get on with from that range.
I have a President Lincoln II + a lot of buttons but to me a far better radio but again that is just me.
Stand back for the worms.

When we were originally on CB I put up a Silver Rod for mum, it was on a 16foot pole.
They were DC grounded and all she ever did was disconnect it if a storm was around.
That was up from mid 80s to around 2000 no lightning problems, may be just lucky.

But then I had a 30foot mast with five big VHF/UHF yagis.
The mast wasn't grounded as such apart from being in a metal socket in concrete.
I did have 6 metal guy wires, 3 under the rotor cage and 3 half way down, these went to 3foot
angle iron stakes direct into the dirt.
No problems with this and I even worked 2metre Es one year during a storm with lightning
about 100yards away, must have been lucky?
I have seen sparks jump across an n plug when I have disconnected during a storm.

On HF I have the 6band Hustler vertical that I just pull the DX Engineering feed braid to earth
when not in use.

But as G0RQQ I want to make the coax disconnection outside the shack, best not to tempt
the discharge inside.

hi john, I have a 9900 and found it works great. at the time i paid around £155, put up a £30 silver rod, so with coax £200 approx. and working the world on 11m,also use it on 10 with good reports. As Alan said buttons can be fiddly and its menu driven I guess its user choice. I only dx so not on ukfm and use VFO and not channel selector, it can get hot if worked hard. Not to put you off, its a great little radio with great rx/tx, never had a bad report. There will always be better radios on the market, but not for £155 new. Just for contrast I a have 3 radios 9900,ftdx10,ft450d.3 different radios three different price ranges, but only worked Indonesia once and that was 9900 on 11m.hope this is some help
regard
mark

Good morning gentlemen. Firstly, sincere apologies for my silence over the last couple of days. We have had two days of engineers going mental fitting that new fangled Air Source Heat Pump central heating. It had to be done quite honestly. Well, 7 storage heaters and a £2500 leccy bill says it had to be done!!! Grrr. Anyways, back now. Guys, thank you again so very much for all of this valuable input. I really do try to research absolutely everything you are firing at me and am now about to look into these silver rods. They sure must have something about them. Again, great to hear from you all and thanks lads. ps...yes, most definitely with this disconnect antenna side and not shack side. That IS going to be a definite.

what you need to do if really concerned is have a break point outside  and directly earth your antenna - HOWEVER !!  many years ago i had a superbolt  hit a house 30 feet away - on dartmoor -  i blew the massive granite bloks of a chimney apart and caught the roof alight -  - damage to my house ?? telephone wires burnt out - plugs off walls - but radio gear which was simply unplugged - fine  

BUT !!  AND READ THIS CAREFULLY - MY FRIEND A FELLOW HAM WAS AWAY ON HOLIDAY  - and had HIS GEAR  disconnected  - with the lead 18 inches away from the radio - an FDK MULTI   - when he returned he called me to look at the burned out radio and the scorch mark across the bench !!

could of set fire to the house so a minor loss on the scale of things - and we had enough to do that night with the struck property  - as you may guess i was in the local fire service  at the time  

SOOOO  moral of story -  IF  its going to hit you - it will find a way   - this must have been a branch off the main bolt - which hit his antenna in the garden   - you can get "ligtning " detectors on amazon et al which will give you warning 

however - i have been doing radio for 45 yeas - seen a few storms in my time and touch wood .... no problems  - it is literally just bad luck if you get a direct strike -  and MOST  times as the incident above shows - simply disconnecting will suffice - but not always

Great to hear from you Brett and your input is massively appreciated, as is that of all other members. YES, I absolutely get I am being rather overkill here and happen there is far more chance of my being bitten by a daffodil or, comes to that, winning the lottery. Bottom line and as stated throughout my posts, I really do have to get this about as RIGHT as I can. New property, a rather tall vertical (my only option now) in a small village (parish council) and a garden loving wife who simply refuses to go horizontal...don't ask!!! Hopefully, you get the picture. There are new verticals coming out virtually weekly and by the time we move in, well, I figure we will be sorted. Hmmm...about as sorted as I am ever going to be within my constraints shall we say. Love and peace to all...even my wife and her blessed begonias.