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Re: Topband: Lightning makes antennas vanish

To: w8ji@w8ji.com, Topband@contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: Lightning makes antennas vanish
From: K8MFO@aol.com
Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2012 10:04:14 -0400 (EDT)
List-post: <topband@contesting.com">mailto:topband@contesting.com>
In 1972 I was living in a basement apartment in Dearborn,  Michigan.    The 
landlady was very kind, and allowed a 67 foot  dipole,  fed with ladder 
line to be run between 2 trees over the  house.   One day there were 
thunderstorms predicted, and I  disconnected the ladder line from my Johnson 
Matchbox, 
and went to work.
 
When I got home,  a friend who lived in an upstairs apartment next  door, 
met me in the driveway.    She told me that there had been  a FLASH over my 
house in the afternoon.    I looked for my  antenna, and it was GONE, 
totally!     The support ropes and  end insulators were hanging in the trees, 
and 
the ladder line was on the ground  in another neighbor's driveway.      The  
antenna?    Never found a trace of it, and I looked for a long  time!
 
OH, the neighbor who saw the flash, said that her stereo system stopped  
working at the same time!
 
Don K8MFO
 
 
In a message dated 7/8/2012 9:34:39 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
w8ji@w8ji.com writes:

I've  never experienced this before a year or so ago, when I had a Beverage 
 
antenna melt in two from a nearby tree getting hit.

About a month  ago I had about 300 feet of a Beverage just vanish from a 
hit 
on a tree  next to the wire.

Now it happened again this week, and long stretches  of two Beverages just 
vanished. This is cad plated #17 electric fence  wire.

Anyone else have this happen? My copperweld #14, that clearly has  arc 
pitting where it passed over other wires, shows no damage other than  the 
arc 
pits. The cad-steel fence wire must get so hot it just vaporizes.  I can't 
even find any pieces of it.

Since the 1960's or 70's, this  is the very first time I've seen this 
happen. 
Are thunderstorms more  violent now, or is wire cheaper?  :-)

I'm not fixing my antennas  until October or November.

73 Tom  

_______________________________________________
UR RST IS ... ...  ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK

_______________________________________________
UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK

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