Allen,
Sorry to hear. I know exactly how you feel.
My tower took a direct hit Thursday, May 8, 2019 at 8PM. My daughter who lives
about 300 feet away saw the strike. I was in the shack, and felt a concussion
but heard no sound. At that time I was moving the equipment around to a new
position in the shack, and no antennas were connected. However, all computers
were plugged in and connected to LAN through gigabit switches.
All LAN switches were destroyed. Two big screen TVs were damaged. Three PC
monitors were destroyed. One PC was destroyed. Three hard drives (external)
were destroyed. My two Yaesu FTdx9000D transceivers were destroyed. Two
Winkeyer USB's were destroyed. Two SWR/Power meters were damaged. My two
Alpha 87A amplifiers were damaged.
Found a repair place on FM 1960 to repair the TVs. Cost was about $300 for two
TVs and one monitor. The other two monitors were replaced. Had Island
Amplifier repair the Alphas. Delivered to John Stanford at 2019 Hamvention,
since were were both attending. Picked up at his place near Los Angeles in
December, 2019. His bill was a bit over $800.
I have done extensive analysis to determine best way to mitigate this kind of
damage again. Still working on solutions, and have developed a home-brew unit
for each station that will disconnect 120V and 240V power plus one or more
antennas, all controlled with a wireless remote.
Total claim was $25K. Settlement check was received in the amount of 22.5K.
Insurance adjuster gave me instructions on how to determine damage cost. He
had me send one of the Yaesu units out to Yaesu in California. They
communicated directly with the adjuster. Insurance paid the $300 shipping cost.
Hope this helps. My homeowners policy covered the damage. It had a special
clause covering lightning, with a $2500 deductible. I learned from my
insurance agent almost all homeowners policies have this type of coverage.
Good luck.
73, Keith NM5G
On Tuesday, July 6, 2021, 05:35:17 PM CDT, Robert Polinski via BVARC
<bvarc@bvarc.org> wrote:
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The reason to bond the 2 systems together is to eliminate any potential
difference between them. All grounding systems have resistance. If you pound a
ground rod into the earth and attach an extension cord hot wire to it, it will
not blow a 15 amp breaker! If your AC ground has say a 25ohm ground resistance,
and lets say you put 3 ground rods in for your station (antenna) ground and it
has a resistance of 17 ohms. When there is a large current flow (lightning) the
current will take the lowest resistance path to earth. If the grounds are
separate, the path it takes will be thru your rig or equipment as it contains
both a AC ground (ether thru the safety ground or neutral wire) and a antenna
ground. By bonding (connecting together) the two grounding systems, there is no
difference between the grounds. Although current may flow it will flow to the
lowest path & not try to create a path through you equipment. I can take a
radio and put 1000 volts on the case but if there are no paths for the current
to flow, the rig will see nothing and no damage will be done. A lightning bolt
may have several million volts, but that voltage must still overcome resistance
as it travels down the wiring and into the earth so the voltage & current will
be many times lower, still high, but not millions of volts. Robert
From: BVARC <bvarc-boun...@bvarc.org> On Behalf Of terry leatherland via BVARC
Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2021 5:09 PM
To: Robert Polinski via BVARC <bvarc@bvarc.org>
Cc: terry leatherland <k5...@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [BVARC] N5XZ Lightning Strike - Seeking guidance
Robert.
HI. I was going to ask this very question. I recently rerouted all of my coax
and antenna runs thru a different path into my 2nd floor shack. Below the shack
I put in a 8' copper ground rod. I have all 4 coax lines going thru dx
engineering lightning arrestors into that ground rod.
It is about 40' away on the same house side from my main house AC ground..
Should I just run a 10Gauge wire leg from that new rod to the AC rod, thereby
making all of them the same ground structure?
Isnt that called a ground loop? or am i reversed in this thinking.
Terry Leatherland, K5PGF
281-455-8090
Sugar Land, Tx
On Tuesday, July 6, 2021, 04:29:04 PM CDT, Robert Polinski via BVARC
<bvarc@bvarc.org> wrote:
Allen, you need to bond your ham ground with your AC ground. Robert
From: BVARC <bvarc-boun...@bvarc.org> On Behalf Of Mark Brantana via BVARC
Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2021 3:47 PM
To: BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB <bvarc@bvarc.org>; TDXS Reflector
<tdxs-l...@tdxs.net>; CTDXCC <ctd...@kkn.net>
Cc: Mark Brantana <n5...@yahoo.com>; Allen Brier N5XZ <n...@earthlink.net>;
Allen Brier <n...@arrl.net>
Subject: Re: [BVARC] N5XZ Lightning Strike - Seeking guidance
I have a new 650 watt computer power supply you can have if you want it.
Mark
N5PRD
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
On Tuesday, July 6, 2021, 3:42 PM, Allen Brier N5XZ via BVARC <bvarc@bvarc.org>
wrote:
As many of you know, I have suffered a direct lightning strike here at my
station on Monday, June 28th about 6:30 am. It was essentially catastrophic for
most of my equipment inside the shack and I am still assessing the damage. I
even have some damage to audio gear in another room. Many other homes in the
neighborhood also suffered damage, one of them so bad that EVERY piece of
electronic equipment in the house was fried. I am still waiting for a power
supply to get my computer back up and running, but thanks to Orville K5VWW, we
have determined that the hard drive is intact.
I am seeking guidance from anyone who has suffered a similar fate. I need to
know:
- How did you deal with the insurance company?
- How did you test equipment to determine the extent of damage?
- Did you employ an electrical engineer to provide statement(s) to the
insurance company to validate damage? (was is require to?) (Any EE's out there
available for this?)
- What was claimed? i.e. did you claim all feedlines, cables, adapters,
switches, etc. in addition to radios even if there is no damage visible?
Any other information which may benefit me in my claim would be appreciated. It
may be a while before I am back on the air again from my QTH.
Allen Brier N5XZ
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