Lightning Strike at W1UJR QTH

[W3SLK]

Frank said:

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.

I'm with you Frank. An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. I have even gotten into the habit of disconnecting the aerial in the wintertime to prevent the static that builds up from causing any damage.

[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.

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

Very true. It's mostly laziness on my part. I connect everything and then forget  and leave it connected. Then all of a sudden I hear the rumbling and lightening flashes and realize thatI had better disconnect  in a hurry.  I really need to set up a convenient way to quick connect/disconnect. That way I can easilly disconnet when I am away or am not transmitting/monitoring anjd re-connect easilly and quickly wqhen i want  to operate.

Speaking of bad weather there was a tornado not far from my parents house in Westchester county (where my station is).Fortunatelyit was at least 10 miles northand didn't affect the station. From the news  I have heard thus far it did do considerable damage though.

[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.

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

Very true. It's mostly laziness on my part. I connect everything and then forget  and leave it connected. Then all of a sudden I hear the rumbling and lightening flashes and realize thatI had better disconnect  in a hurry.  I really need to set up a convenient way to quick connect/disconnect. That way I can easilly disconnet when I am away or am not transmitting/monitoring anjd re-connect easilly and quickly wqhen i want  to operate.

Speaking of bad weather there was a tornado not far from my parents house in Westchester county (where my station is).Fortunatelyit was at least 10 miles to the north and didn't affect the station. From the news  I have heard thus far it did do considerable damage throughout the areas that it did pass.

[The Slab Bacon]

A friend of mine, who is lo longer active, WB3ARZ, built this really neat contraption that we called "the disrupter". It used "N" style bulkhead connectors for the coaxes and DB-9s for the rotor cable. He machined the threads out of the connectors, and used precision slides and precision air cylinders to disconect and seperate all of his cables when not in use. (he had an air system in his basement). If I remember correctly it used a solenoid valve tier into the radio room lights to automatically connect when he was in there and disconnect when he shut the lights off. It was a way cool device.
                           The Slab Bacon

[Vortex Joe - N3IBX]

Bruce,
        Sorry to hear about the lightning strike, and about your Icom amplifier. Was it their solid state job? Regardless, replacement is an expensive proposition. I hope nothing else was damaged in the interim!

Thank God nobody was hurt!

Best Regards and hope to hear you on the air again soon.
Joe Cro N3IBX

[Ed/KB1HYS]

when I had a 40 meter mobile whip on my truck, I had left the pl259 disconnected and laying on the floor when I went to work.  I drove under some HV lines that run over the highway, I heard a disticnt SNAP.(Inductive kick from the power lines as I drove under at highway speeds). I put the connector where I could see it later, and saw a bright fat spark jump from the center pin to the shell.  I wondered that my rig still worked as I drove that way every day to work!!! 

[W1UJR]

Summary - The Final Tally 

Icom PW-1 Amp
Seems like it might live again. I was able to take the unit completely apart and find a problem. What a challenge! First, in the style of most “no user serviceable parts” consumer electronics mentality, Icom does not show the power supply in the schematic or parts list for the amplifier! It is instead shown as a large cube with no breakdown, this in my factory service manual. I removed about 40 screws, gotta love baggies for keeping them organized, and was finally able to get the power supply cube out. Removed perhaps a dozen more screws and I was inside the power supply. I found two small 4 amp fuses, both of which had been zorched. I quick test showed me that the fused power leads were not shorted, so I made a temp fuse with a few wire strands. The amplifier powered back up, thankfully that was simple. I have the fuses coming from Icom today. Icom Service and Parts could not locate the fuse number, it took great pains to find out and order. I plan on doing extensive testing over the weekend with high hopes of a complete recovery.
UPDATE - Spoke with Icom Tech Support this afternoon, (good folks by the way), they told me that the power supply is made FOR Icom and that they - Icom - do not really have a schematic or spare parts for the unit - only what they can cannibalize out of other failed units. Here is the clincher - the retail cost of that power supply - just the power supply, not the complete amp - is $3200!

Heathtkit HO-10 Scope
Fuses in the old type power plug popped, replacing them tonight and keeping my fingers crossed.

Panasonic Cordless Telephone System
Junk, anyone want for parts?

Linksys Router and Cable Modem
Junk, anyone want to dissect?

GFIs
Replacement

Light Timer in outbuilding
Apparently smoked

Cable TV and Data Line
The repair guy, who told me he had a degree in philosophy (you might want to mention that your kids in college!), was great. He found and replaced multiple cable connectors, and then was good enough to call in my new cable modem MAC address and get the system going. I celebrated by watching a rerun of the movie “Bruce Almighty” (what a great movie!), the lightning scenes were especially poignant.

The Tree
The sad part, done. Estimated at 100-125 years old, it’s going away Monday.
I hope to document that on my website, taking down a 100 foot pine tree is no easy matter.
The cost of cut down and removal is $850 from the folks at Asplundh, a nationwide biz.

Insurance
Was great. They will not pay for the tree removal as it had not fallen, but will pay for a replacement and repair to my lawn. Anyone care to hazard a guess for the cost of a 100 foot pine?
They will pay for all the electronics and electrical work. And they WILL pay me a “reasonable and customary” rate for parts AND labor to repair my gear. Items not repairable will be reimbursed at replacement cost. I really thought they were most fair and easy to work with. My thanks to the Vermont Mutual, good people.

Lessons Learned
Always ground your antenna. Despite the strike no more than 50 feet from my antenna, nothing connected to the line was damage. I was most amazed about that.
In the past I've always been very cavalier about operating on the air during a electrical storm, no more.
In the event of a near strike chances are very good that things plugged into utilities will be damaged, electrical, cable and telephone.
Nothing will save your house, or electronics, in the event of a direct strike.
One can only do measures to mitigate near strikes.
Count your blessings. In my case it could have been much worse – someone hurt or killed, fire at the house/barn, vintage electronic stuff zorched, etc.
My landscape crew left only 20 minutes before the strike!

Thanks
Finally, many thanks for all those who took the time to write, email, or call with expressions of support.
This is one of those “it will never happen to me” things that did indeed happen. Lesson learned.


-Bruce W1UJR

[K1JJ]

Wow, that's quite a message, Bruce!

Yes, unpluging our more precious gear from the socket is important. Even if the switches are off, the arcing can easily bridge gaps.

I'm surprised about the really good insurance coverage. You would think by now they would call that an "act of God" and blow ya off.

T

[W1RKW]

Bruce,
To answer your question on cost for taking down the pine tree. About 6  years ago at my old place I took down a towering oak tree (about 80 to 100ft tall and absolutely beautiful tree) that stretched out over my house and my neighbors house.  It had a main trunk then split into two smaller trunks or branches that went over my house and my neighbors house. The girth of the main trunk was more than 3 feet.  I figured it's age to be over 100years old.  It was a strong and beautiful oak but  I feared one day we'd have one of those violent storms, a lightning strike or one of New Englands famous ice storms and it would land on either my house or the neighbors or both.  It did survive hurricane Gloria back in 85 where another oak on the property didn't survive the wind and snapped like a twig half way up  but I couldn't risk the chance anymore of this tree crushing the two homes so I had it taken down.  It cost, if my memory serves me right, around $700.00.  They did a good job and didn't make a mess.  When the trunk was cut through it was solid much to my surprise.  The whole tree appeared healthy.  I was sad to see it go.

[W3SLK]

Here's one for you as crazy as it sounds but tie three knots in your power cords. The impedance created by the knots will prevent it from going into your equipment. Most cases I've seen the cord blown apart at the first knot. After that, all that needed replaced was the power cord.

[k4kyv]

Here's one for you as crazy as it sounds but tie three knots in your power cords. The impedance created by the knots will prevent it from going into your equipment. Most cases I've seen the cord blown apart at the first knot. After that, all that needed replaced was the power cord.

I just discovered today that my VCR got toasted in a recent thunderstorm.  Rarely use it anymore, but when I tried it, it was dead.  Took it apart, and evidently the thing uses a switching power supply.  No transformer, directly rectified line a.c. produces about 160 vdc.  Some exotic looking IC chips had metallic residule all around them.  I repaired a  circuit board trace, but the  thing still wouldn't come to life.  I'll just buy a new one since they were real cheap the last time I paid any attention to the ones in the stores.

My Sansui 9090DB 100 watts rms-per-channel stereo amplifier equipped with monster power transformer wasn't hurt, nor was the TV (not sure if it has a power transformer or not).

BTW I recently discovered that the Sansui amp sold for $900 when new in 1975!  I paid $10 for mine at a yard sale.  Only thing wrong was a blown fuse in one channel and some burnt-out lamps.

We get T-storms too frequently around here to run and unplug everything in the house whenever there is a threat of lightning.  I do manage to disconnect the antennas, throw the big switch in the ham shack, and disconnect the computer.