[ICOM] Lightning vs PS-125

[mikea]

On Thu, Aug 06, 2009 at 01:43:45PM -0500, Mike Reublin wrote:
> My station was whacked Sunday afternoon, and it got most everything.
> There are matching burn marks on the Pro II and the PS. The Pro II is
> fried.
>
> The PS-125 shows 14.35 V. How can I determine if it's safe to use?

Oh, man, I'm _sorry_ to read that. Put the PS under enough load to draw
the key-down operating current that the Pro II would draw, and monitor the
output voltage and ripple. If they stay within the limits the Pro II manual
says are OK, then use it cautiously. 14.35 V does seem a bit high; if you
can locate a pot to tweak it back down to around 13.8, that probably would
be better. A careful inspection certainly is in order, too. 

I see that you're in JAX, so the lightning isn't any sort of surprise, but
it's still a really serious bummer to lose a rig. I really, really hope the
rig was insured. 

An illustration of one of the weird things lightning can do is shown in
these two images:

<http://mikea.ath.cx/vacation2002/stuff/IM000091.html> 
<http://mikea.ath.cx/vacation2002/stuff/IM000093.html>

The cans in the images were stacked just as you see them, full of Schweppes
Ginger Ale, and unopened. Lightning zapped them, the microwave to their
left (it has been working well ever since), the refrigerator to their right
(also working well), and the man standing at the microwave. No other damage
was found, nothing else was affected, though our ears did ring for a while
after the strike.

-- 
Mike Andrews, W5EGO
mikea at mikea.ath.cx
Tired old sysadmin