wisp_engineer

Well the tree might offer the lowest potential so it may bear the brunt but with lightning you have to also remember there are after-effects like residual electrical discharge and resonance that must be dealt with. Ever see a communications tower grounding system? They have the halo at odd path lengths and bonded certain ways for a reason. Those odd/even lengths average out to produce a grounding system that ensures that after the strike the left over energy is dissipated properly without causing damage to sensitive equipment.

There is a product by Motorola called the Powerline MU. It is designed to provide MTU/MDU's (apartments) with high-speed broadband. Basically, the 'access point' is installed at the meter bank. This lights the entire complex up on that meter bank. All of the electrical outlets on the meter bank there now have high-speed connectivity. Plug in your modem and you are set. There are some catches on a system design such as quality/condition of the electrical systems interconnects (dirty breaker contacts, poor electrical wiring, bridge taps, etc) that can wreak havoc with such a system. If you want to know more check out Motorola's website.

If the lightning is as bad as you say it is... You are going to have a lot of money and work involved. How far away is the electrical feed?

I'd say this all depends on what the path looks like. How much "stuff" in the middle greatly affects what you are dealing with. I'd stay away from 900MHz systems as those can have issues with spurious noise associated with high-voltage transmission lines and substations. But, you never know. I have a WISP customer that is maybe 3 blocks from a big substation, and they are on our 900MHz system. The antenna is pointed right over the top of the substation and there is no problems what so ever. If you can PM me with a google earth image I can take a look at it and maybe give you some thoughts.