[TowerTalk] An Enlightning Experience

[Pete Smith]

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
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