[SADXA] Lightning hit

[Jerry Wothe]

Hi Darrel:

During the DX season for me the tip of the mast on my system is 85' ft high. But prior to  the Monsoon I crank it down to where the mast is just 40 feet. But, it is still the  tallest thing around my neighborhood by a quarter mile or so. There are some  trees a little less than that away but best I know  they have never been hit.

That night I could hear the storm coming as it was  really noisy and then it was quiet for a few minutes and then  this hit. It was followed by maybe less than 10 min two more close hits that were less than a half mile away. In a storm like that I see the flash I count the seconds before the shock wave arrives to get a measure of how far away that hit was.

Along with the wind, that often comes with a storm like that and the likelihood of a lightning hit, it is exciting.

Jerry

W6XI

> On August 14, 2022 at 7:08 AM Darrel Emerson <demerson2718 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>     Scary.  How high is your tower?  My heart rate would still be racing.
>        Cheers,
>               Darrel aa7fv 
> 
>     On Sun, Aug 14, 2022, 06:08 Jerry Wothe <jdwothe at cox.net mailto:jdwothe at cox.net > wrote:
> 
>         > > Just  to keep you all aware of the danger of lightning, my tower took a direct hit a few nights ago.
> > 
> >         When  that occurred the whole house shook. The neighbors on one side said the car alarm on one of their cars went off from the shock of  the sound wave.
> > 
> >         The neighbor on  the other side, a ham, said all the GFIs in his shack tripped.
> > 
> >         All  the cables from my tower are disconnected from the shack and everything kept outside and tied to the tower. I checked any electrical device in my shack that was connected to the power and found no damage. I temporarily connected all my antennas as well as the rotor and everything checked out as OK.
> > 
> >         A visual of the base of  the tower around the ground rod connections showed no sign of damage.
> > 
> >         So I was lucky but then I was prepared for just such a hit.
> > 
> >         Many years ago I  took a direct hit and it wiped out a lot of equipment in the shack and house.
> > 
> >         Jerry
> > 
> >         W6xi
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