[Boatanchors] AC Line Protection for Boatanchors

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 7:43 PM, Bill Stewart <cwopr at embarqmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Todd,
> I've been wondering where you were located. Did we pass at the recent Cary Swapfest?...How about you Walt??

I've missed all the local 'fest so far this year Bill, if you don't
count Richmond (which ended up mostly snowed out). Did get to the
Raleigh 'fest last year and met Al Parker W8UT and John Brewer K5MO
along with John Weiner K1VVC and Wilson Lamb, W4BOH. Got to meet Nick
England K4NYW and John 'JP' Poulton K4OZY in 2008 when they showed up
to help unload from the move south. If you know any of these
characters, chances are good you'll find me nearby. Of course, it
would help if I got a list of the local events, too.

> Yeah, Todd, you guys up in that area have had some bad storms. Mother nature's spark gap puts on a real show at times. After I posted this I began to recall the number of zaps we have had here over the last 35 or so years...probably five or six..plus a tree or two, with some resulting in some zapped appliances and a few radio problems. This most recent event must have hit the power line big-time, cause my neighbors fencer got zapped and she said they also had a loud pop in the house. I have a feeling these storms are gonna trend toward the severe side in the future. I don't remember storms being this rough and the heavy rains we have now...but, as a kid, I probably didn't pay that much attention to the weather...except for Hurricane Hazel...I do remember her.

I'm going to guess you guys got clobbered again last night. Two really
large lines of storms basically straddled us here, passing NE to SW on
either side. We got some thunder and lightning, a few drops of rain,
and a great light show to the south. It took out a transformer in Wake
county with a pretty spectacular fire and left about 11,000 people
without power.

I've got a separate breaker panel for my radio gear too, but I need to
run a separate line out from the main panel to run the clocks,
otherwise I need to reset them every time I throw the main panel
breaker.

Looking forward to catching up with you, Walt, and others here locally
sometime in the near future. At least now I understand why we never
heard a lot of 4 Landers on AM up north. Lightning season runs a whole
lot longer down this way!

~ Todd,  KA1KAQ/4

BTW Bill - forgot to mention it previously, but the on/off switch in
the HQ-150 is apparently a frequent point of failure. I've had two,
the first one failed closed briefly, returned to working condition but
was on borrowed time. Second one failed open, requiring a clip lead
under the chassis to hardwire it on. I think it's a fairly common part
used in other Hammarlund receivers of the time, so it shouldn't be
difficult to track one down.