Considerations in the Protection of Cellular Radio Sites

The merits of installing effective lightning and surge protection on telecommunications towers, along with adopting good grounding and bonding practices are well established.Tower structures are often elevated above their surroundings in order to maximize coverage, thereby making them attractive lightning receptors to the vagaries of the Cloud-to-Ground lightning discharge.

This paper sets out to explore a number of topical questions commonly posed regarding the scope of protection needed for different sites and locations. It seeks to provide background to each question, explaining the mechanism of the risk involved, and the method best suited to reduce this.It also covers aspects such as whether protection is required in geographic locations where isokeraunic levels are low,whether protection is needed and how best to protect against the direct and indirect strike.