Lightning protection in telecommunication buildings

In this paper, we describe lightning protection systems, such as the grounding bus and buried ground ring system in microwave relay stations and a new grounding system, for telecommunication structures that have electrically sensitive switching equipment installed. We developed a method and a device for determining the route of grounding wires in existing structures. We describe how the installation of a variable resistor in parallel to an interconnecting wire can eliminate a sudden change in current or voltage when an inadequately bonded grounding wire has to be cut. We also developed a method for evaluating the efficacy of adding new lightning countermeasures to existing buildings. This method involves determining the transmission characteristics of a simulated lightning surge before and after the addition of the countermeasure.