Lightning Safety Question: How could I use a mag mount antenna on my car w/o being struck by lightning?

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

While your ohmeter has insufficient potential to measure a dry tire, it most certainly is a conductor, not a great one unless you test with a HI-POT or lightning. Do you feel lucky?

Myths here:

6 Dangerous Myths about Electrical Safety

Everyone uses electricity but few people (probably less than 10%) really understand it. This can be dangerous...

www.machinedesign.com

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Thank you for your responses, I got some really good advice. But I need to clarify some things;

1. I own an SUV and possibly soon a hybrid (don't know if that matters.)
2. I plan to use a mag mount attached to a portable scanner.
3. I know that I can be struck regardless, but I want to lessen the chance of it happening.

If I need to clarify more, let me know!

Please advise name of next of kin..

 

[AB5ID]

Having a coax cable run from the top your car through the window into your car is an interesting thought. Seems like it could provide a path into the Faraday cage, Is that more dangerous?

 

[Pr999]

I think I've been massively misunderstood here. All I was asking was how to be safe with a mag mount antenna during a significant event while on a road trip to make sure I can lessen the chance of being hit by lightning. I was looking for solid advice (and I found very few) and recommendations for an antenna best suited for what I want to do. I like to travel alot with me and my family, and we occasionally ride through rough thunderstorms and I wanted something nice that would work for the job or some type of advice about car antennas for portable radios, I understand If I couldn't get any but I would gladly take the advice. I though coming to this forum would help me, but very few did. I just ended up being ripped apart. I apologize that if my posts came off stupid, like I said this was my first ever post and I don't really know the total environment here, I just wanted some advice and/or recommendations about antennas. I am willing to learn while not being insulted.
I give thanks to the ones that did help.

 

[Pr999]

Makes no difference. Still a large metal object moving in lightning.

Scanner can get fried even if lightning strikes close by and does not get your antenna.

Stay indoors during lightning. Just asking for problems. Lightning, or wind could knock over a tree or telephone pole and could hit your car..

What are you looking to accomplish? Why do you want to put yourself at risk or endanger the lives of any first responders that may have to come save you in the event something happens to you?


.

1. I just added that because with the inclusion of the hybrid because of hybrids having extra electrical components.
2. Thank you for that interesting fact, though I kinda already knew that. But still helpful!
3. Yeah, I know that! But I'm talking about for the times I pass through a thunderstorm where that cannot be help unless there's a tornado.
4. I just want an antenna that's a little more safer during severe weather. I don't plan to make anything difficult for anyone.

 

[AC8FW]

Good morning Pr999....I don't claim to have all the answers but I'm happy to share my experience with you. I've been using a Mag-mount antenna on my company car and on my personal vehicle for about 15 years.....I've had 3 or 4 different mobile radios as well as several handheld radios and scanners radios connected to them. I have never had any problems with lightning entering the vehicle or damaging the radios. My two favorite antennas are Diamond® Antenna ~ MR77 Dualband Mobile Antenna for a mobile radio and Diamond® Antenna ~ MR73SA Dualband Mobile Antenna for a handheld radio. I run the wire off the roof between in the gap between the front and rear doors. The HT antenna with the RG174 coax fits the gap on modern cars much better than the mobile antenna with the RG58 but the HT antenna will only take 10 watts of power vs 70 watts on the mobile. There are many other choices for antennas out there, and I've used several, but those are my favorites. So to be clear, your mileage may vary...use my experience at your own risk.

 

[ind224]

FWIW I chase given the opportunity and run both a mag scanner and CB antenna on my SUV. I don't even think about lighting other than I wish I had a Boltek. or similar. Remember that path of least resistance and if you have something taller near you it will most likely be that path. At one time long ago an internet feeder in Kokomo Indiana had a Boltek running, it was very cool.

 

[prcguy]

I lived in Colorado for a number of years. A friend who lived in Green Mountain Falls was in his basement reloading bullets and got hit by lightning in his basement. It went through a high up window and hit him in the shoulder and nearly killed him. He was partially paralyzed on one side for the rest of his life. Lightning will go where it wants to go and there is little you can do about it.

 

[Pr999]

Good morning Pr999....I don't claim to have all the answers but I'm happy to share my experience with you. I've been using a Mag-mount antenna on my company car and on my personal vehicle for about 15 years.....I've had 3 or 4 different mobile radios as well as several handheld radios and scanners radios connected to them. I have never had any problems with lightning entering the vehicle or damaging the radios. My two favorite antennas are Diamond® Antenna ~ MR77 Dualband Mobile Antenna for a mobile radio and Diamond® Antenna ~ MR73SA Dualband Mobile Antenna for a handheld radio. I run the wire off the roof between in the gap between the front and rear doors. The HT antenna with the RG174 coax fits the gap on modern cars much better than the mobile antenna with the RG58 but the HT antenna will only take 10 watts of power vs 70 watts on the mobile. There are many other choices for antennas out there, and I've used several, but those are my favorites. So to be clear, your mileage may vary...use my experience at your own risk.

Thank you! I will check them out. I have a question, are there any smaller, tri-band versions of them? I'm looking for one that covers HF(CB) to UHF. Would be appreciated!

 

[ind224]

 

[dave3825]

Think it will be a long time before those are installed on cars.

 

[a417]

I was looking for solid advice (and I found very few) and recommendations for an antenna best suited for what I want to do

You seem to be looking for a magic pill that will prevent a vehicle from being hit by lightning in a storm. That doesn't exist. The antenna will likely have little to do with your vehicle being hit, if the storm decides to smite thee. Your jab at 'solid advice' isn't really warranted, as you have formed a bit of a bias based on the current replies.


There is a solution...Don't be in the storm.

Be in an underground parking garage. Probably the safest place that's readily accessible. Or an abandoned missile silo.

 

[GlobalNorth]

Lightning strikes on vehicles are very unusual. I won't say rare, but they are unusual.

For years, Fire apparatus, ambulances, police vehicles, etc. had whips for everything from 900 MHz down to VHF lo-band and they don't get the luxury of parking inside garages during electrical storms. If anything, they get more calls during electrical storms due to power going down, traffic signals not working, and poor drivers that get worse with weather. Now, they are using low-profile antennas, but you get the idea. I've never seen or heard of it on an emergency vehicle in all my years of public safety work.

Lightning is like the lottery, you can play for years and never win a thing/never be struck and there are people who've won multiple times or struck multiple times.

 

[dlwtrunked]

I think I've been massively misunderstood here. All I was asking was how to be safe with a mag mount antenna during a significant event while on a road trip to make sure I can lessen the chance of being hit by lightning. I was looking for solid advice (and I found very few) and recommendations for an antenna best suited for what I want to do. I like to travel alot with me and my family, and we occasionally ride through rough thunderstorms and I wanted something nice that would work for the job or some type of advice about car antennas for portable radios, I understand If I couldn't get any but I would gladly take the advice. I though coming to this forum would help me, but very few did. I just ended up being ripped apart. I apologize that if my posts came off stupid, like I said this was my first ever post and I don't really know the total environment here, I just wanted some advice and/or recommendations about antennas. I am willing to learn while not being insulted.
I give thanks to the ones that did help.

T do not think anyone hear (at that I read) is trying to insult you. The truth is, no antenna is going to make you more safe or less safe. You really need to not go further than that.

 

[Pr999]

I guess I'm just worried. I hear about lightning striking antennas because they can be a conducter and I thought I could ask for some safer remedies to prevent that from happening while in the car. So it really doesn't matter what I do?

 

[R8000]

Car in a lightning simulator

 

[captainmax1]

I lived in Colorado for a number of years. A friend who lived in Green Mountain Falls was in his basement reloading bullets and got hit by lightning in his basement. It went through a high up window and hit him in the shoulder and nearly killed him. He was partially paralyzed on one side for the rest of his life. Lightning will go where it wants to go and there is little you can do about it.

I've seen lightning hit trees, follow the tree down through the root and come back up in a house, car, etc. 20-50 feet away and do damage. It does not need a conductive path to follow. Your chances of getting hit by lightning are next to zero but lightning can go nearly anywhere. Lightning hits the ground in the United States approximately 40 million times a year. Lightning Strike Victim Data

 

[Mophead]

I used to drive very large grass cutting tractors at a big airport and was always terrified getting caught in pop up thunder storms out in between runways with nowhere to run lol. My two antennas were small but my grounded target was large. The three large steel cutting decks on the soaked grass and the simple plexiglass roofs gave me a less than sense of total lightning immunity. I never felt I was in a "Faraday cage."

 

[KMG54]

Being a Ex South Florida native, I had a tall queen Palm in my front yard and a post lamp at the end of the driveway about 20 feet from the tree. The tree took a direct hit. split it in half and it headed to the post light that was wired to the house. I kid you not, it looked like someone rented the biggest Ditch Witch the could find, and trenched the yard from the tree, to the light and then to the house. Never found the actual light on top, just debris, but other than a few popped breakers everything turned out fine.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Airplanes don't ride on tires, but on a cushion of air which is not considered a conductor. Nevertheless they often get hit by lightning. I was once in a plane hit by lightning and it was uneventful except for the pilot advising us that they would be doing a checklist. Planes are a conductive tube, like a faraday shield.

There was at least one plane downed by lightning because an RDF antenna was struck and it was not properly grounded and thus, lightning entered the fuselage and started a fire.

The OP sought advice on intentionally driving in lightning, and now says he does so with his family aboard. A mag mount antenna is not a good idea in such an endeavor. Would you put your arm outside the window in a lightning storm? How about a wire? Same difference..