My dumbass didn't install a lightning resistor inline of my coax. I didnt get a direct lightning hit. It was close enough to take out the mosfet in my amplifier. Lesson learned. Even though I usually unplug the coax when I'm not on the air. I went on for a while when a storm was on the way. I should have took notice of the storm aproaching . Lesson learned. An expensive one too!
I find putting a 10k 2 watt non wire wound resistor in parallel with the antenna feed line works for lower powered transmitters. Anything that's high powered it's usually best to go with a professional lightning arrester connected to a really good grounding.
Another good idea is to use a high amperage knife switch to A/B the coax from the equipment to direct ground however this may only work well with HF equipment since VHF doesn't like this kind of thing.
Last year I strung up a 40' longwire sloping antenna which I used for MW transmitting along with shortwave listening. I usually grounded the wire when it would storm but a few times I forgot and was in the room and even though a storm was a mile away it would cause the coax from it to arc. Even wind storms would cause it from static charges. Kind of freaky when it would happen. The 10k ohm resistor idea fixed that.
Lightning is one of a radio hobbiest worst enimies. I highly recommend you read up on ways to make yourself more safe but the truth is you can never be 100% safe.