[Elecraft] Lightning

[Dave (NK7Z)]

John,

Remember the "Cone of Silence" in the old TV show Get Smart...  There is 
a "Cone of Protection" for lightening, although it was not as funny as 
the "Cone of Silence" was...  See:

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADP002181.pdf

and

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=lightening+cone+of+protection&atb=v314-1&iax=images&ia=images

If the cruiser was out of that cone, it could easily become a target for 
lightening...

Prior to his passing, I knew Leonard Ball, he held the patent on the 
LASER lightening rod, which is now used, alas, Leonard never saw the use 
of it...

73, and thanks,
Dave (NK7Z)
https://www.nk7z.net
ARRL Volunteer Examiner
ARRL Technical Specialist, RFI
ARRL Asst. Director, NW Division, Technical Resources

On 5/5/24 08:46, John Canfield wrote:
> 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.
> 
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