[Elecraft] Lightning

[John Canfield]

Some lightning musings....

My K3s network interface board took a surge on the USB part of the board 
a few years ago and toasted a diode and maybe a transistor (I forgot), 
RS232 was unaffected. Elecraft replaced the board and returned the old 
one. One of my to-do list items is to replace those components. My 
primary radio is now a TS-890 but the K3s is on duty for JS8Call 7x24 
(when no storms are forecast.) Still salivating over a K4 BTW.

As far as lightning, one of my most unusual personal experiences was 
when we had a sailboat (40' ketch with the mainmast 50' off the water) 
at a typical Florida marina. Next to us was about a 35 or 40 foot 
powerboat and next to him was another sailboat. So one would expect the 
powerboat is protected by virtue of the two tall lightning 'rods' on 
either side of him.

Uh, no. We had a very close lightning strike, none of our electronics 
were damaged and the other sailboat was also unaffected. The powerboat's 
electronics were toast, all of them. He couldn't believe it nor could 
we. We suspect he took an electrical surge via the shore power cord but 
that's just a wild guess. We heard of sailboat that took a strike and 
the next morning when they started the engine they discovered the 
transmission was internally fused together .

John WB5THT EM00ig
K3s, KPA1500, etc.