[Lowfer] Lightening Havoc at " XR "

[Andy - KU4XR]

The worst lightening hit ever in all my years in radio here tonite.
I had all the radios, and my PC on, and was going to solder a resistor
in a circuit. Just at the instant I touched the iron to the circuit;
there was a huge flash of fire, a loud crack, and a momentarily
stunned ME wondering what in the heck I had just done, all I did was
touch the iron to the resistor, and then a about 3 to 4 seconds
later, a boom of thunder shook the trailer. I then knew I had just 
took a direct hit. The flash of fire, and loud crack, was the arc
from my HF antenna that fortunately was disconnected at the time.
Absolutely no warning at all, not even called for in the local WX.
No radio damage fortunately, slight damage in the PC. It blew my
good sound card, and knocked out my ethernet port. I un-installed it,
then re-installed it, and that fixed that problem. The lowfer beacon
was disconnected from the loading coil, so shouldn't be any damage
there. Now I just need to order another good sound card, and get 
back up to full speed.

73 all ::::


Andy - KU4XR - EM75xr - Friendsville, TN. USA
LOWfer Beacon " XR " @ 185.29875 KHz ( QRSS-60 )
Coordinates:  N:  35º 43' 54" - W:  84º 3' 16"
http://www.myspace.com/beaconxr
http://webpages.charter.net/ku4xr/