wrote:

On 2 Jul 2005 16:35:48 -0700, "Joe Analssandrini"
wrote:

Hello Dr Artaud,

You are very lucky. The damage could have been far worse. Your house
could have burned down!

As you have found out, the National Weather Service, while far better
than in the past, is not as reliable as we should like.


We generaly don't have as much worry about lightning along the
coast of Calfornia. But we do have the local power utility.

Some years back, a worker dropped a multi-KV line across the
local 110V line. It took out almost all electronics on at least one
block, as well as burning out the motors on some refrigerators and
blowing a lot of light bulbs which were not even turned on at the
time.

I wonder when some idiot power company employee, bored out of his gourd,
will hook up a KV line to 110V and watch the houses blow up. Of course,
he'd probably spend a few years in prison, possibly the rest of his life
if he kills somebody, but at least he'll have fun doing it. I doubt that
the people whose lives he destroys won't be laughing, and the judge
won't like his explanation of "I was bored, Your Honor, so I decided to
have a little fun".

Several times when my grandparents lived out in the country, lightning
hit their power pole and literally sent flames shooting out of the
electrical sockets. Somehow, their house never burned down, although
everything electronic was ruined and so was their wiring. My grandfather
estimated that the lightning bolt must have been hundreds of GIGAVOLTS,
if not teravolts.


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I once saw some electric wires up there along them poles in
Harvey,Louisiana (N'Awlins area) that had got fried by lightning,it
wasen't a pretty sight either. www.lightningstorm.com
cuhulin

- You'll drive yourself batty trying to figure out why lightning does
what it does.

- Might there have been *two* strikes? The one that hit your antenna &
damaged the Hi-Z input, and *another* one that hit the power lines &
damaged the other equipment?

- Even if there was only one, that strike on the antenna would have
induced some pretty high voltages on the AC line, which could have
caused the damage to the other gear.

- Around here you can pretty much assume there will be at least one
thunderstorm within 100 miles of Nashville on any given summer day.
From about early April through about late September, I leave my
antennas disconnected when not in use.
--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com

Doug Smith W9WI wrote:
- You'll drive yourself batty trying to figure out why lightning does
what it does.

- Might there have been *two* strikes? The one that hit your antenna &
damaged the Hi-Z input, and *another* one that hit the power lines &
damaged the other equipment?

- Even if there was only one, that strike on the antenna would have
induced some pretty high voltages on the AC line, which could have
caused the damage to the other gear.

- Around here you can pretty much assume there will be at least one
thunderstorm within 100 miles of Nashville on any given summer day. From
about early April through about late September, I leave my antennas
disconnected when not in use.

Hey Doug,
I checked out your web site. Fascinating stuff especially the F2 skip
recording from 1938 of the BBC, captured in N.Y. I managed a signal
while in N.C. (near Cherokee) from a station in Kitchener, Ontario back
in the 70's. This is a good time of year for that stuff too.

Bill
KC9CS

"Dr. Artaud" wrote in
. 97.142:

One huge collective thanks for all those that responded to this thread. I
have read all the responses, and I appreciate the time that each of you
have taken to respond.

For the time being, I am going to use a white wire antenna draped around
the very edge of wall where it meets the ceiling, tucked into the
crevice, so that in the future it mat be painted over and lost in the
confusion of all the other imperfections of our 100 year old house
(believe me, it's old in the poor sense, not the classic "drink with your
pinky in the air" sense). That should provide about 45 feet of wire,
going, of course, in different directions. Will the orientation of the
wire be an issue, or is it, in the Freudian sense, better for the antenna
to be longer?

*************************
* X *
* *
* *
* *
* *
* *
***** *****
* Window *
*****************


If by any chance this comes through correctly, the X = the radio. I will
start there, go towards the window, and loop back eventually almost to
the radio again just above it. The window protrudes over the roof
slightly, that is why it is drawn offset.

Any suggestions on why or why not this will work or not would be
appreciated.

Thanks again all!

Dr. Artaud

Dr. Artaud wrote:
"Dr. Artaud" wrote in
. 97.142:

One huge collective thanks for all those that responded to this thread. I
have read all the responses, and I appreciate the time that each of you
have taken to respond.

For the time being, I am going to use a white wire antenna draped around
the very edge of wall where it meets the ceiling, tucked into the
crevice, so that in the future it mat be painted over and lost in the
confusion of all the other imperfections of our 100 year old house
(believe me, it's old in the poor sense, not the classic "drink with your
pinky in the air" sense). That should provide about 45 feet of wire,
going, of course, in different directions. Will the orientation of the
wire be an issue, or is it, in the Freudian sense, better for the antenna
to be longer?

*************************
* X *
* *
* *
* *
* *
* *
***** *****
* Window *
*****************


If by any chance this comes through correctly, the X = the radio. I will
start there, go towards the window, and loop back eventually almost to
the radio again just above it. The window protrudes over the roof
slightly, that is why it is drawn offset.

Any suggestions on why or why not this will work or not would be
appreciated.

Thanks again all!

Dr. Artaud

In your drawing, it looks as if the wire will nearly loop around the
entire room. Not a "loop" antenna in the strictest terms, but a random
length wire in all directions. It should favor no particular direction,
but you'll have at least a sizeable piece of wire up. It should work
okay. If you've a very old house and it happens to have steam radiators
you could make a connection to the pipe as well...more metal to collect
signal.

Bill
KC9CS

A few days ago,I read on the internet where lightning zapped a 9 year
old girl's mattress and set it on fire in Kansas.There was some metal
things on the wall in her bedroom and the lightning was hunting for the
metal.It can do the same thing to antenna wire in a room too.
cuhulin

wrote in news:8789-42C876A2-732@storefull-
3256.bay.webtv.net:

Hopefully it won't see it as seductive as an outdoor wire antenna (with a
lightning arrestor) that terminates just below a massive tree. I still
remember reading stories at the National Weather Service web site about
lightning safety. A woman, sitting in he kitchen, talking on a cordless
phone was struck in the side of the head by a lightning bolt. She survived,
but when the call for help was first placed, the police and medics thought
the call suspicious, since she wasn't on a corded phone. Basically, while
in most residential homes during lightning storms, you are never absolutely
safe.

Regards,

Dr. Artaud

A few days ago,I read on the internet where lightning zapped a 9 year
old girl's mattress and set it on fire in Kansas.There was some metal
things on the wall in her bedroom and the lightning was hunting for the
metal.It can do the same thing to antenna wire in a room too.
cuhulin

"B. Otten" wrote in
:

That is correct, that is what concerned me, that fact that it will have
orientation in all directions. The radio works quite well with the 15 ft.
stub that remains of the original antenna, it has been cut off outside
the window.

I would like to return to the outdoor wire antenna, but only after I can
ground my equipment properly. I also need to redo the ground rod and
connections, and purchase an arrestor that may be more successful in
shedding the voltage of the strike/near strike successfully. I will also
run the antenna on the other side of the yard, and terminate it well
short of the tree, as the strike rode down the outside of the tree to the
wire.

I still don't know if it was a coincidence that I just put the arrestor
on the wire 3 weeks ago, and that it may have saved my house, or if the
presence of the arrestor is responsible for a "leader" climbing the tree
and connecting with the bolt of lightning, encouraging it to the
arrestor's ground.

Regards,

Dr. Artaud

In your drawing, it looks as if the wire will nearly loop around the
entire room. Not a "loop" antenna in the strictest terms, but a random
length wire in all directions. It should favor no particular
direction, but you'll have at least a sizeable piece of wire up. It
should work okay. If you've a very old house and it happens to have
steam radiators you could make a connection to the pipe as well...more
metal to collect signal.

Bill
KC9CS