The GCARC “grounding” project is a major undertaking to develop and implement a process that will protect the clubhouse and its contents from a local lightning strike. It was initiated several years ago by club member Ron Block NR2B who also happens to be a nationally-known expert on lightning protection. Ron developed a comprehensive plan for this project that was shelved for several years because of its cost and the lack of volunteer manpower to implement it.

That situation changed when John Hill W2HUV offered to donate a linear amplifier for the HF station but required that proper lightning protection needed to be in place. At that point Ron had retired and was shutting down his business and could donate a significant amount of the equipment needed for protection. Ron also offered to custom-build several devices including the protectors for each set of the rotator cables (there are eight sets) coming into the clubhouse. Several of the Skunkworks team members began to meet with Ron to sketch out a plan for implementing his recommendations. The result involved removing the paneling from the HF room (and subsequently the VHF room and several other areas) and relocating the AC wiring, replacing the paneling and running plywood-backed copper strips around the inside walls of the operating area onto which the electrical outlets, coax connectors and other items would be mounted, and then solidly grounding that copper strip through floor to a network of ground rods pounded into the ground.

On Saturday 3/13 Sheldon K2MEN, Len W2LFR and Mike K2MRP joined Frank to remove the paneling (the equipment had previously been removed), remove existing wiring and install new circuit boxes and AC wiring that will comply with the plan. The existing circuit boxes needed to be moved below the level of the table with new wiring installed.

A confounding factor in the project was the network wiring that runs from the networking cabinet in the VHF room through the length of the clubhouse to the HF room. This creates a risk of damage if the clubhouse is struck by lightning. Several options were considered with the most workable being to replace the wiring with non-conductive fiberoptic cable. This required running flexible conduit through the ceiling the entire length of the clubhouse from behind the wall of the HF room into the networking cabinet in the VHF room. This took Frank and Len most of Sunday 3/14 to fish cables through the clubhouse ceiling and follow it with the conduit. At this point the conduit is in place and ready for installation of the fiberoptic cable.

Once the outlets were installed and the conduit was in place the walls could be replaced. The previous paneling was patched and marked so new paneling was purchased and installed. Cutting and mounting the paneling was challenging because the room is significantly out of square. Much measuring and cutting was needed.

The next step was to install the plywood backing for the copper stripping. Frank finished off the plywood at his home shop.

The plywood was then installed along the walls where the cooper would be mounted. Frank brought a 3D level that projected a level line on all four walls of the room which greatly facilitated mounting the boards level. In the process they notes how far out of square the walls were – there’s a significant drop in the floor going left to right!

The roll of copper needed to be installed in one long piece. The roll sat on a chair adjusted to the plywood height while Frank installed clamps that would hold the copper to the wall for installation.

It took a lot of people-power to hold the stripping straight so it could be punched and screwed onto the plywood.

Finally the copper was run on all four walls of the HF room.