[SADXA] Saturday night storms in Tucson

[Jerry]

Although I was in Texas when it all happened in Tucson I was monitoring things. Antennas and equipment are the issue. Tucson had a real storm with possible sightings of funnel clouds in the area with no ground contact. At my QTH we got 2.3 inches of rain with high winds. Enough wind that it blew over Cactus plants that took a couple of 70 mph winds in July. Some trees went over as well with much isolated flooding. It is this very kind of storm why I crank things down at the beginning of July and leave them that way until mid or late September. All the cables to the tower are disconnected outside and hung on the side of the tower.

A recent speaker at the SADXA meeting, who is an expert on Lightning Protection, after telling us  all the stuff one should do to prevent lightning damage to house, home, and equipment finished by saying, If you really want to be sure you dont get damaged by lightning, disconnect your stuff, unplug it, remove the ground from your radios and hope for the best.

Last night was one of those nights I missed but my place sure showed ths signs of the storm. The antennas are still standing, so I guess they are too small :-)

Jerry
W6XI