when did you move to Florida?
:-)
sounds like a routine occurrence here, unfortunately...
K4OJ
Pete Smith wrote:
I took the first real lightning strike of my 49-year ham career Friday
evening about 5:30 PM. It apparently hit my 40-meter yagi at the top of
the tower, about 200 feet from the house. I was in my shack at the
time, and saw the flash, heard the almost instantaneous bang, and then
heard a loud bang inside the room with me. Quite impressive!
Having all of the conductors from the tower disconnected appears to have
limited the direct damage, particularly inside the house. I had
wondered whether there might be flashovers at the entry panel where I do
the disconnecting, but there is no evidence of that. Both rotators, the
antenna switch, and the stackmatch relay box (all on the tower) are
apparently fried, and one of the loading wires on the 40m antenna is
hanging loose. Induced voltage did most of the limited damage we had
inside -- one computer (an old one), a network card and the flat screen
monitor in the hamshack (but the associated computer is OK, oddly
enough), a hub, and a cable modem. The big culprit seems to have been
our Ethernet network. Our phone system had a lot of physical evidence
-- RJ-11 plugs welded into their sockets, etc. -- but we didn't lose a
single phone instrument, not even the cordless ones. All of the series
traps and filters in our cable TV circuit from the pole inside the house
were blown, and we just got cable service restored late yesterday.
However, everything connected to it -- TV's, Tivo, VCR, etc., survived
intact, perhaps because I had a surge protector in the cable before the
first active device.
The real reason for posting this, other than amusement, is to suggest
that maybe the whole-house surge protector we had installed a couple of
years ago made a difference in the level of damage we sustained. More
and more utilities are offering these now, to be installed behind the
meter. In our case, the power company even insures electronics against
damage if you use both one of their whole-house protectors and local
protectors (ones they sell, natch) at the units themselves.
73, Pete N4ZR
The World HF Contest Station Database was updated August 4.
123 stations were added or updated.
Are you current? www.pvrc.org/wcsd/wcsdsearch.htm
_______________________________________________
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any questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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