Indoor, attic antennas apparently are no guarantee of lightning protection.
Today, after weeks with virtually no rain at all and 100+ degree temps, a
thunderstorm developed directly over my house. It dumped over 1.61 inches of
rain (measured with my Davis Weather Station) in just over two hours, and
generated one of the most intense lightning storms that I've ever seen.
We had lights blow, arch overs from several electrical outlets, and other
damage. Alabama Power was busy repairing transformers, and blown circuits all
over this general area in the wake of the storm.
In my own shack, I could hear loud arching several times, but could never
determine where it might be coming from. Even thought the antennas are in the
attic, I still have an extensive grounding system. It consists of several 10
foot rods just outside the shack, bonded together with heavy gauge wire, all
connected to a common grounding point inside the shack wall. Everything in the
shack grounds to this copper plate with short braids.
So far, the damage appears to be to my station computer, Icom 746 Pro, and a 6
Meter TE Systems amp. Fortunately, I was still racing to prepare for the UHF
contest, and had not yet connected my transverters, IC-910H, and other VHF/UHF
gear prior to the storm.
It's looking very "iffy" for my participation in the contest tomorrow, though
I'm going to give it a shot.
73,
Les N1LF
EM63NF
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