Delta Loop HF Antenna for the Ariel

[pbryant]

Thanks Ebb. It's always good to hear from you.

I'm a Ham, so this all radio stuff seems sexy to me. But my point is: before chopping up the backstay, try a Delta Loop first. I'm able to tune the mast and rigging from 10 to 160 meters without mechanical modification.

Regarding lightning: as a former broadcast engineer who worked years at AM stations that took continual direct hits with no damage, the three secrets to lightning survival are grounding, BONDING, and surge suppression. EVERYTHING electrical on my boat is bonded to a single point that terminates at the backstay chainplate, which is connected to seawater with a submerged zinc plate. The one wire shown in my diagram running to the tuner is only one of many grounds connecting everything to that bonding point. The discharge path for lightning needs to be as direct and vertical as possible -- without turns or sharp bends. In my case, the path is from the masthead, down the backstay, to the submerged zinc plate. All other connections to the backstay are bonding wires.

The whole point of bonding is to keep everything conductive at the same potential (voltage) so that, during a lightning hit, there is no difference-of-potential between objects on the boat -- and therefore -- no current flow. It doesn't matter if the entire boat suddenly jumps to 1 million volts, provided there is no difference in the potentials between everything on the boat. Ohms Law still applies to lightning.

The best guide I've found for lightning protection of sailboats was produced by the University of Florida: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/sg071