Lightning Strike at W1UJR QTH

[W1UJR]

July 11,2006

Lightning struck a large, approximately 70 foot tall, pine tree located near my barn. I arrived home and noted a large amount of wood chips in my driveway and yard, and the rear lawn torn up near a strand of pine trees. I was surprised to discover that lightning had struck during the day, splitting the tallest of the pines from the top to the base. The lightning then followed the tap root into my yard, tearing up the ground.

In the strike I lost my cable internet modem, internet wireless network, cordless phone system, several GFI breakers, and a very expensive Icom ham radio amplifier.

The important thing is that no one was harmed, and the house and barn were not damaged.
I can only thank Divine Providence for that. 


See http://www.w1ujr.net/lighting_strike.htm

[David, K3TUE]

Bruce, glad to hear no one was hurt.

The power of lightning is always something to behold.

73 de a fellow Buffalo expatriot,

[WA1GFZ]

Wow,
That was a serious bolt. I had the bark ripped off a small sugar maple about 40 feet from the tower a bunch of years ago. The tree actually healed itself. I bet you will be adding a serious ground system around the house.
I hear a house was hit and exploded in the Tom Vu's town today.

[WA3VJB]

Man I hope I grounded my station when we left.

[W5AMI]

Bruce,

Man glad no one was hurt!

I've been there, done that too.  Lost the TV, Satellite rcvr, Symetrix 528, dishwasher, and a bunch of other little things.  Same as you though, none of the old BA stuff even barked about it.

You just never know about lightning dude.

73
Brian

[Jim, W5JO]

I think most, if not all, electrical utilities sell or rent a supressor system that intalls under the meter and power strips for the very sensitive equipment to plug into.  Here there is a recurring charge of about 5 bucks a month but that is for the insurance policy that accompanys the system.

Wonder if you have that option and I also wonder if anyone here has experience with them. 

[W3SLK]

Jim said:

I think most, if not all, electrical utilities sell or rent a supressor system that intalls under the meter and power strips for the very sensitive equipment to plug into.  Here there is a recurring charge of about 5 bucks a month but that is for the insurance policy that accompanys the system.

One of the foremost authorities on lightning used to belong to our radio club in Lynchburg, VA. He started out working for GE/Ericcson and took on lightning investigation as a curiosity. Ultimately, he ended up teaching a course at Mary Washington college on the subject. He gave us the condensed version at a club meeting one night, (packed house). Those devices that go on the service entrance lines are not well liked by the power companies. Appearantly, they are the equivelent of placing a chain across the primary leads to ground. They are usually made out of Thyrite which my ET-4336F uses as a dropping/regulating resistor. One thing he did manage to get out was that no matter how prepared you are, there is always the 'granddaddy' of all lightning strikes that will render all prevention useless. Now if I can only remember his name and call sign

[The Slab Bacon]

I took a direct hit about a month or so ago. It hit My pole light out on the garage and came in through the house wiring. For the next few days i was finding little
"nuances" all around the house that it crapped out.

Dont be surprised if you find lots of other little things damaged as time progresses on.
It looks like that tree really "took it on the chin", but you just never know!!
                                                                       The Slab Bacon
                                                 

[WA1GFZ]

Jim,
They are called MOVs and work well but the problem is they can only handle a limited number of hits then they explode. They are great devices I wish we could use them in aircraft systems. I wouldn't mount one inside a breaker panel. You can get some large ones that handle lightning. I've seem them the size of a hockey puck. You also would need a ground system big enough to handle the current.
Wire in metal conduit is a great way to isolate from lightning.

[KB2WIG]

There are several manufacturers of arrestors. There are ones that will fit into a  knockout on the entrance. Ya can get them at lectrical supply houses..  sry 'bout the damage... klc

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Dont be surprised if you find lots of other little things damaged as time progresses on.
It looks like that tree really "took it on the chin", but you just never know!!
                                                                       The Slab Bacon                             

I had a hybrid transceiver that got whacked by a near strike back in the 80s. It hit within a half mile or less, but I didn't think anything of it. Took out some SS components, the rig still lit up but no workie.

Having seen that tree at W1UJR (and admired it for the antenna support it could be), I can say that the pics don't do its size justice. That is one big mofo tree, and the lightning cracked it like a toothpick and threw debris 40-50 feet or more. Certainly gives one pause about the power of such events....

[K1JJ]

I hear a house was hit and exploded in the Tom Vu's town today.

That's quite a hit, Bruce.  And it took out a lot of your gear.  I've also lost several telephones from near hits. Now I disconnect the phones, all power breakers, antennas and computers from every connection when there's a thunder threat. Still, I think a direct hit would take out a lot of stuff anyway.


Wow, Frank,  I didn't watch the news yesterday and missed it.

Yes, that was quite the storm. I'd say about four major hits were within 1/4- 1/2 mile of the QTH. Each time, I heard the loud cracking of the tower guy cables from inductive pickup, at each lightning flash - and the thunder a fraction of a second later.. Yaz jumped every time the snapping occured. But, still have not had a direct hit here in maybe 15 years that I know of.

T

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

But, still have not had a direct hit here in maybe 15 years that I know of.

And having seen shots of your mountain top antenna farm, I'd like you to design my next ground system! 

[WA1GFZ]

Tom,
Gary wa1ewq told me he saw it on the news last night so don't know where. My tower is close to the house so I can hear the tower clicking when there is a close one.  I saw some serious bolts last night.
Just over the wall is our lightning expert. He is known all over the place.
I've learned a lot from him. Shielding and metal conduits are great protection.

[Glenn NY4NC]

Tom,

Wow! that's truly fascinating.  I'm wondering what causes that? the voltage picked up by the guy cables discharging to ground?

And Bruce, glad you faired well (besides the Icom) considering what could have happened.

Each time, I heard the loud cracking of the tower guy cables from inductive pickup, at each lightning flash - and the thunder a fraction of a second later..
T

[Mike/W8BAC]

[Wire in metal conduit is a great way to isolate from lightning]

Frank,

I use a 20' push up on top of the house soon to be a 40 footer. A passing storm already causes a bunch of stress. At 57' the tip of the mast will be about even in height with most surrounding trees. Since it's on the house I want to do the best possible job of grounding.

I am interested in how the conduit might help. I assume the conduit is grounded as well? Is the ground cable somehow insulated from the conduit like coaxial cable (hard line). I use 3/8 X 4 strand copper now to 4 ground rods linked to the mains bus. Conduit wouldn't be hard to add.

I'm also thinking of making a grounded corona ring of copper pipe placed near the feed through conductors inside the house. The antenna is a W7FG doublet into gas filled arc tubes and large inductor type static suppressors. With all this I still strap the feed lines to ground outside and inside the house as well as switch off power to the entire shack.

[Bill, KD0HG]

Tom,

Wow! that's truly fascinating.  I'm wondering what causes that? the voltage picked up by the guy cables discharging to ground?

And Bruce, glad you faired well (besides the Icom) considering what could have happened.

Each time, I heard the loud cracking of the tower guy cables from inductive pickup, at each lightning flash - and the thunder a fraction of a second later..
T

Glenn, my tower guys, 160M sloper and sectionalized parts of my 80 M double-zepp snap and arc quite frequently whenever a storm is close by. It's all static charges, but it sure makes the animals nervous when it starts happening. This is in spite of having 100K resistors in place to bleed off charges, so there must be a significant current involved at times. Long wire type of antennas are very impressive when there's zorching going on in the area.  When I lived on a farm in Illinois I had a 1200' vee-beam up and that thing would arc across the breadslicer caps in the tuner, 1/2" easily. Sounded like firecrackers going off.

Like Tom, I've never had a direct hit on the stick here, which pokes up ~140'. I don't know if the solid ground that I put in discharges the immediate clouds or not. The tower sits in a 3'x3' hole and I lined it with heavy 8" wide copper strap before pouring the concrete. Then I soaked 20 pounds of copper sulfate in the hole over a week's time. It should last many years. The strap goes around the concrete on the outside where it attaches to the tower legs, to prevent the possibility of exploding concrete. I've gotten to be a believer in the chem-rod, or chemical assist sorts of ground systems for lightning protection. They don't do much for RF grounding, but there's nothing better for lightning protection. 

..

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[John K5PRO]

Back when i was WN4PRO in early 1970s, we took a direct hit to a pine tree at my folks Lake Wateree (SC) house, where my 40m wire dipole was attached. It melted my dipole, followed the RG58 down to the aluminum window screen, arced to it, then a big spark jumped down from the dangling PL259 connector about a foot to a nearby duplex outlet under the window. My cousin and I jumped out the nearby window onto the porch, when that ball of fire popped in the room. It was extremely loud hit. I had no radios hooked up, so only the antenna, the outlet, the Romex and all of the staples holding it under the house, and the branch circuit breaker got damaged.

My QTH has massive MOVs across both lines to the shack, mounted at the main power panel, to a nearby ground. Each antenna has a Polyphaser protector and I have a single ground bus behind the station desk, which also goes out to the same ground. Polyphaser has always preached that a single perimeter station ground is needed, to prevent different potentials from appearing on various equipment and cables. My tower is well grounded, and the cables from it run through 30 feet of buried steel pipe before reaching the arrestors and going up into shack. In 13 years here in the desert with plenty of severe lightning strikes within a mile, I haven't had any damage.  Knocking on wood right now....

[The Slab Bacon]

Static build up is another similar but strange phenomenon. i remember one winter day about 15 years ago. It was cold, dry and extremely windy. The static build up on my antennas was so bad that the bulkhead connectors on my antenna patch panel were arcing over like sparkplugs. It took out all of the mosfet / gasfet preamps in all of my VHF stuff and there wasnt a cloud in the sky!  Go figger!! after that episode I disconnect ALL of my antenna cables when i am not at the operating position at all times. You just never know what might happened. As Someone else often says:
"Once bitten twice shy."
                                                            The Slab Bacon

[K1JJ]

Frank,

The house that caught fire and destroyed yesterday was in the next neighborhood, on the next hill. I'm sure the hits I heard were one of the ones that caused it.

Yes, Todd, it almost seems that tall towers have no "come-hither" for lightning.  I have about 15 miles of copper wire in the ground and all towers are connected to them and together via underground trench bare copper cable. In addition, each tower has it's own radial system of cad-welded rods and 0000 cable underneath the concrete base. These three main cables come up and are cad-welded to the tower legs.

So, I guess you could say the whole 4 acres here are tied together with one massive ground system and five tall lightning rods.

I didn't really do the 15 mile radial system for lightning, but rather for a 160M vertical system. Now it's dual purpose, I guess...  

I know that all of the commercial installations leave their antennas connected during storms. But then, there are some really catastophic crap out melt-downs. I noticed Chuck/K1KW has quick disconnects on his plexiglass window feedthrus for antennas and rotators. He just pulls them all off and lets them lie on the ground during stroms. I think that's the best method of all in case of a direct hit..

I once watched a pair of .01 disc caps pop into flames that were across the 240 AC mains. It was a hit maybe 1/8 mile away. I just happened to be working on it at the time...  Yes, magnetic inductive pickup and resulting collapse is what arc-snaps guy cable. They arc over the Johnny ball and to ground. Watch a compass needle spin when a strike hits real close for visual evidence of this.

T

[WA1GFZ]

I use Bird coax switches and give them a pull when I leave the shack. I throw a pipe ofer the open wire line forcing it to the ground. I've flashed 10 KV caps in the antenna tuner with inductive hits. Gee Tom I need to watch the strong magnet hanging in the shack during a storm to see if it rotates off north. I also like Chuck's set up and plan something similar in the new place when I'm away.

[W1JS]

We had a "severe storm cell" hit Exeter NH yesterday about 12:30-1:00 PM.  We had hail literally as big as golf balls.  I was out in my less than month old new car heading for an errand in the next town.  Needless to say I did not make it.  My brand new car is now "dimpled", but no broken windows or sunroof.  All in all I made out not too bad.  Back at the ranch (office) where my car normally would have been parked, we had numerous vehicles with cracked windshields, blown out back windows and obviously the "ball pean hammer" look.  The local car dealers had millions of dollars worth of damage in their lots.  A local pharmacy had its roof collaspe from water and literally blow out the front doors (everyone got out in time).  Many house windows were broken, including some historic homes. When I was out there, the streets were flowing with torrents of water and hailstones.  A very unusual storm for NH.  A funnel had appeared on radar but did not touch down.  It became painfully obvious what it was holding up...  We did not have much lightning in that storm (or we could not notice because of the noise of the hail), but we had another severe storm with numerous strikes later in the afternoon. 

[W1RKW]

I remember when I was about 7 or 8  years old when my family lived in Illinois, we lived in a neighborhood that bordered a huge cornfield.  I was home with my father and a severe storm was rolling in.  The neighbors behind us had just had a new chimney built for their addition on the house.  I remember my father being concerned about the storm cell that was approaching the neighborhood because the lightning would strike the ground about every 30 seconds and it was coming across this cornfield in a nearly straight line.  I remember him saying the next one is going to be very close.  As soon as he said that a direct strike occurred right on the top of the neighbors new chimney.  They were about 150 feet away from my folks home.  I remember it vividly to this day (and we're going back 40 years) and all the bricks flying around.  There were pieces of brick and whole bricks all over the place.  Fortunately the strike didn't burn down the house or cause other damage to them or anyone else but man it was like a bomb going off.

I freak all the time when I hear thunder in the distance. We get some crazy ass storms rolling through the hills here.  Coax feeds are disconnected and moved far away from the house. I'm not chancing nothing to a switch or suppression device. My theory is if a bolt of lightning can find it's way down from 30,000 ft out of the sky why would it stop for something that is just 1 or 2 inches. Disconnection and separation of the feedlines is a PITA but it works.

My only concern is the air handler up in the attic.  It's a friggin' target.

[John Holotko]

When I see dark  clouds and lighting approaching the feedlines go out the window and onto the ground below. I live in a valley and my view into the distance is blocked by houses so you  get little advance warning of approaching storms until they are just about right overhead. Unfortunately the feed lines  often stay outside till the fall. And even though I'm in a valley I have seen some pretty close lightning strikes.

Today it was super humid and there was/is a severe rain/flood  watch in effect for the area al;ong with a heavy thunderstorm and tornado watch for my area and the surrounding areas. From what I've been hearing it seems like there is some pretty nasty weather hanging around this summer.

[The Slab Bacon]

When I see dark  clouds and lighting approaching the feedlines go out the window and onto the ground below. I live in a valley and my view into the distance is blocked by houses so you  get little advance warning of approaching storms until they are just about right overhead. Unfortunately the feed lines  often stay outside till the fall. And even though I'm in a valley I have seen some pretty close lightning strikes.

Thats all well and good, but what if a storm brews up and yer not home to disconnect the cables??  I feel that it is better to always leave them disconnected and hook them up when you need them.
                                    The Slab Bacon