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NAS Key West, a Navy air base on Boca Chica Key in South Florida, is responsible for training and supporting some of the nation's finest pilots and aircraft. But due to its severe, lightning prone weather, the staff at the Navy base began looking for a comprehensive solution to the nagging problem of equipment failure.
Lightning had taken an increasingly heavy toll on NAS Key West, with strike damage occurring in the vicinity of a radio antenna tower and the equipment used for local, ground-to-ground, and ground-to-air communication. While backup systems were in place to ensure radio communication between pilots and ground support in case of disruption, NAS Key West staff sought to improve the situation.
"We'd sustained lightning damage on components ranging from radios to receivers to lightning protection devices, and were spending too much on repair, replacement and troubleshooting," explains Neil Franklin, ET1 (SW) USN, NAS Key West's Communications Work Center Supervisor.
"More importantly, we wanted to improve our operational effectiveness and safety," he adds. "The weather can change quickly, and in the worst weather we need the best communication despite the threat of lightning-caused disruption."
NAS Key West sought and reviewed bids from a number of lightning protection contractors and specialists, with Lyncole Industries getting the nod. Lyncole Industries offered total site lightning, surge and grounding protection with the capability to fast-track project completion ahead of peak lightning season.
Coordinating closely with NAS Key West staff, an engineering team from Lyncole arrived on site last July. A site survey revealed a course of action, plus some challenges. Proper grounding required considerable expertise because the island base consists of a thin layer of sandy soil, on top of coral reef, on top of limestone, all of which make achieving a proper low resistance grounding system very difficult.
"Initial testing showed a ground resistance over 25 ohms at the radio tower and equipment building," says Bill Foley, Lyncole's lead engineer on the project. "The goal was to lower ground resistance below 5 ohms to provide any lightning strikes with a direct, low impedance path to ground."
