[FADCA] (no subject)

Thu Jun 17 23:58:37 EDT 2004

sorry to hear about that...

try investing in a DB antenna!!! it's TRULY DC GROUNDED!!!!
Commets will do one thing when lightning hits them......

DISAPPEAR.

my no cents to the pot... btw I had a ringo get hit myself and it hears better
then the ft-2700 I have on it..... go figure.

73 From,
KD4EFM / AFA2TH USAF MARS
Evans F. Mitchell
Polk County ARES Member / SkyWarn #POL-017
Polk County EC
Polk County Communications Program Volunteer

<http://www.kd4efm.org>
kd4efm at arrl dot net
kd4efm at hotmail.com
kd4efm at kd4efm dot org

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "W4RP" <w4rp at spydercat.com>
To: "'Florida Amateur Digital Communication Association'" <fadca at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 23:03
Subject: RE: [FADCA] (no subject)

> I'll tell you what happened here.
> Last Friday, 6/11  at 15:47  I got my first direct lightening strike.
> 
> It struck my Comet GP-9 dual band vertical.   The GP-9 is 15.9 feet tall.
> Mine was on a 50foot push up mast.
> 
> The bolt 'vaporized' the antenna.  Actually, it defined for me the word
> 'smithereens';  pieces of antenna are all over the street, yard, neighbors
> roofs, etc.  All that remains is the ground plane and a little blackened
> stub about 2 inches tall.
> 
> I have been paranoid about lightening for years and had invested heavily in
> lightening protection.  At the base of the mast, I sunk a 10foot copper rod
> through the pool deck into the ground and secured it to the mast with 000
> braid. 
> 
> The ground rod also has a 000 braid looping up over the window behind it
> into my shack where it terminates on a 1inch thick, 2 foot copper bar, which
> in turn is mounted on a copper plate.   
> 
> I have 6 polyphaser lightening gas discharge lightening protectors for each
> antenna.
> 
> Inside the shack, I have everything connected to APC power UPS with
> surge/lightening protection.   The same for all computers in the kids rooms,
> all TVs, and even my 5Ghz wireless local loop telephone system has its own
> APC.
> 
> They all worked.  
> 
> The antenna was connected at the time of the strike, to my Kenwood TMV-7A
> dual-band radio. The radio survived, and still works.
> 
> What I failed to protect was the bellsouth DSL line.   In trying to squeeze
> every last bps out of it, I had run a Cat-5 cable from the NID on the side
> of the house to my shack, where the dsl modem was.   At the NID, I had a DSL
> line filter to separate the phone signal into the house and the DSL into the
> shack.   
> 
> It had no protection.
> 
> What I figured happened was the current dutifully ran down the antenna mast
> and into the ground rod like I wanted it to do.
> 
> Unfortunately, I ran the Cat-5 along the roof (2 storey house) and down the
> pole into my 1st floor shack.
> 
> The EMP induced a heck-of-a pulsed current into the Cat-5.   Everything
> attached to the DSL line was smoked.  Literally.   The DSL modem, the
> router, the 16 port 10/100 3com hub  had smoke coming from it.
> 
> The RJ-45 connectors are black and melted.   All computers attached to the
> hub were completely destroyed: my 'main' 3.0 GHZ 1 gig ram baby,  the
> www.palmbayweather.com  computer, the packet BBS computer, the house file
> server, etc., along with the hard drives, the LCD monitors, etc., etc.
> 
> I protected the 'front door' with the APC's, but not the DSL back door.
> 
> I also lost all the security/web cams  (5 b/w starlights, 5 color), 2
> PK-232s,  the USB-rs-232 hub, and a whole PILE of other stuff in the shack,
> including my entire weather station which made up the www.palmbayweather.com
> site.
> 
> The whole radio room smoked.
> 
> Well that was fun.
> 
> Been there done that.  On to bigger and better things.
> 
> Next time, the DSL gets protected.
> 
> 
> So for the mean time, the palm bay packet bbs is down, the w4rp digi is off
> the air and the neighbors are consulting lawyers ( it took out there
> computes, tvs and phones too).
> 
> Palmbayweather.com  is down, but not out -- new station is on the way and
> should be back on the air this weekend.
> 
> 
> 73 es cul
> 
> De rick  w4rp
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fadca-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:fadca-bounces at mailman.qth.net]
> On Behalf Of Bill Sinbine
> Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 9:36 PM
> To: Florida Amateur Digital Communication Association
> Subject: RE: [FADCA] (no subject)
> 
> At 08:08 AM 6/16/2004, you wrote:
> >Bill Guthrie wrote:
> > > test...is it working?
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > FADCA mailing list
> > > FADCA at mailman.qth.net
> > > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/fadca
> >
> >Yep, just a bit dead right now.
> >
> >Chuck Hast
> 
> Well lets get something going to talk about.....It HAS been kind of dead 
> around here!!!
> 
> Let's see WHO is doing WHAT?????
> 
> I know, is there any update from the "EOC" guys about us getting on the EOC 
> network on whatever system it was?
> 
> 
> Think about it .....
> A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
> Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
> A: Top-posting.
> Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?
> 
> Bill Sinbine
> n4xeo at bellsouth.net 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FADCA mailing list
> FADCA at mailman.qth.net
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/fadca
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FADCA mailing list
> FADCA at mailman.qth.net
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/fadca
> 

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