Dont assume that you have to replace the radio. Several boards had to be replaced (over $1600) in mine after an April strike, but the modularity of the radio made it possible to repair it. I wanted to keep the insurance claim as low as I could as I had other damage, but I would have replaced the radio if it were necessary. René at Elecraft did a great job.
I had what I thought was a very good ground system, but it was a huge strike and I hadn't disconnected. (That was an expensive lesson!) My K3 damage came from the RS232 as well, I think. I have wireless internet, a Motorola Canopy unit mounted then on my tower. One of the lightning paths was down the Ethernet line from the tower, through a Motorola lightning arrestor on my grounding panel at the house entrance, and to the computer router, which was damaged. It zapped (technical term) my computer's NIC and the 4-port ByteRunner serial card and continued on to the radio, I think. No damage came through the coax (two ICE arrestors). I moved the internet unit off my tower and made other improvements, including adding a Tripp-Lite DB9 surge protector (MOVs, I assume) at the K3. My new computer is connected to the router via RF instead of Ethernet even though it's only a few feet away. Jim N7US -----Original Message----- 4 grounding rods and two of those alpha delta gas discharge surge protectors couldn't stop mother nature. It appears my K3 has met a very early death by electrocution (from lightning.) It turns on, but even after an EE INIT, I'm still getting a KP3IO error. There's a god awful noise coming from the speaker when its turned on even with no antenna attached. Sounds like wind howling or something. The autotuner sounds like marbles rattling around instead of relays clicking. The KPA100 tests are all whacked out: PAIO TST turns on the fans. FN1 turns them both on at full speed. FN2 turns them both off. FN3 turns them back on again. FN4 drops the fans back off again. I opened the top, but there's no obvious damage inside... nothing is burned that I can see. I also lost the computer that was attached to the K3... as a matter of fact, the USB/serial adapter actually blew apart. The shell of the DB9 was scattered on the floor under my desk and the little circuit board inside is scorched. That computer won't turn on. No visible damage I can see inside. Another machine, a NAS, that wasn't connected to the radio or even on the same power circuit also died. I haven't seen any other obvious damage yet. I hope my insurance covers this... if so, Elecraft can be expecting to see another order from me soon. (Strange way to get a repeat customer, eh?) Gary / k3wow (formally k3 4407) ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
