[Elecraft] Lightning Strikes

Mon May 19 14:02:00 2003

John, K4WTF tells about his lightning strike experience.  Sure can empathize with that, having had two  of them since my
move to Colorado.  First one was a direct hit on a VHF antenna which I thought was grounded, but turns out the coax was
lying across the gas ground pipe and oh boy we had fun!  The lightning went down through the ground system and up through my radio equipment.  Moral of that one: make sure one's coax is in the clear.

The second, and I hope the last, time was from a nearby strike.  I couldn't understand it as everything (I thought) was disconnected and grounded.  When I called the insurance company, the rep asked if I had a computer with a modem to which I answered yes.   She then asked if it was connected to the wall phone jack and again the answer was yes. That was the answer to the problem.  The surge came through my telephone line to my modem, knocked out my computer power supply, then up through my electrical line to another room,, destroying a lovely TV console and several telephones and answering devices.  Moral of this one: Make sure you have a really good surge suppressor on your  incoming telephone/
modem line; better yet, when lightning is near, not only disconnect your valuable equipment and ground everything, but also disconnect your telephone line from the nearest wall plug.  Saves lots of money and keeps your insurance premium from
going up.

73 & God Bless from a soon to be K2/100 owner,
Padre Tom, W2TJO

Thomas Brereton

[email protected]

Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.

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