More lightning strike damage...

What a summer... the nastiest in 23 years of living here, for lightning strikes and storm damages. I found another piece of lightning strike damage by accident. We recently had a storm that was nasty, and when I returned home I found all the breakers in my home workshop tripped. Didn't really find any damage in the shop, until now. I noticed the 2 meter rig (VHF radio) in the workshop wasn't receiving very well, so I decided to put the SWR meter on it and check the antenna. It sits on a grounded, wall mounted, metal shelf. I reached for the feed line connector near the radio and had to break it away from the shelf. Ruh Roh...

Check out the spot on the connector where it welded itself to the shelf...
 

It blew right through the powder coating on the shelf!
 

I haven't removed the antenna to inspect it, yet, but the SWR is about a zillion : 1  on it now :-( . I don't know if it's a direct strike, or a near strike, as there was a tree about 50 feet away that was struck. Whatever the case, this is a real eye-opener for what can come in on the feedline!

Dave
http://www.WB4IUY.net

A Near Lightning Strike Damaged my Buxcom Rascal Digi-Interface

I recently had a near lightning strike that damaged a bit of my gear....again. I'm very careful to disconnect my amateur radio gear from the incoming antennas when not in use. This habit came from various damages over the years from electrical storms. I was surprised to have this damage, considering all antennas were disconnected, all equipment is on surge protectors and UPS units, and nothing was turned "on".

On August 19th, we had a near strike. I didn't think much about it, since everything was disconnected and not operating. The next day, I discovered my Buxcom Rascal and the USB-to-Serial adapter between the computer and my Rascal were damaged. I cracked open my Buxcom and had a look...

 
I did a bit of poking around, and first discovered D1 & D2 in the Buxcom were shorted. They're an easy replacement, and are basically a IN914 style general purpose diode...

After I replaced the diodes, I found that the USB-to-Serial converter dongle was also bad, and wouldn't show up as an operational port on the PC. Whew...this lightning stuff is nuts. Here's the Dynex DX-UBD89 I was using. I replaced it with a new unit from Radio Shack and all was well. It seems I need to disconnect that from the computer as well as the Buxcom Rascal when not in use.

I think the near strike induced a voltage in the ground system for my shack and caused this. I have now bonded the Studio A ground system to the tower grounds to help prevent a voltage gradient between the tower and equipment...hopefully that will help. Thanks to Bob Richards for that tip!

Dave Wb4IUY
www.WB4IUY.net