[TowerTalk] Near Field Lightning Damage

[Patrick Greenlee]

Back in the 80's a tuna boat pulled into San Diego with every device on 
board containing a semi-conductor inoperative.  CB radio, Marine VHF, 
SSB, SONAR, RADAR, VHS tape player, SatNav LORAN, and on and on...  All 
the crew members wore digital watches which were all totally dead.

One near miss by a large lightning stroke took out everything with solid 
state semiconductor junctions.  The good news was they didn't have a 
spotter chopper aloft at the time dependent on the aircraft beacon band 
transmitter on board to find the boat (helipad is the roof of the pilot 
house.)  We theorized it was the EMP that ate everything as there was no 
evidence that the bolt hit the boat.

Later when asked what could be done to provide an immune backup comm 
radio we told them a mu metal box.  A Faraday cage wouldn't stop the 
magnetic pulse.

Just a thought in case there are any serious preppers in our midst.

Patrick    NJ5G