Ham Radio Set Back - Lightning Strike Damage Update

[@moviestudioland]

Move to Nevada. Less lightening. Very few storms

[@peterdeyanov5056]

It's easy to change a hobby. Post stamps, for exmple :)

[@kf7nn]

i have a 100ft tower with multiple feedlines and rotor cables coming into my shack, one thing I did early on was i built a panel with female connectors for every connection and mounted it outside on the bottom of my floor, I put quick disconnects on every coax hardline and use trailer hitch jacks/plugs for the rotor wires, all this so i can disconnect every cable that runs into the shack. I also pull the cables away from the house about 30 feet and lay them across a wooden sawhorse. my tower only has 3 8 foot ground rods but i am hoping that any lightning hits will stay outside the shack cause they have no way to enter the shack when im not connected. yes it takes me about 3 min to hook up and disconnect but well worth it as just one of my rigs is over 8k (ts-990). so never give lightning a path to your sensitive equipment, matter of fact all my equipment is on ups's and i have nothing in the shack tied to ground cause lightning can come in the ground wires also. I actually seen a lightning strike travel across the ground and burn a tree, it lifted the dirt up a few inches and made the tree lose its bark where it traveled, it scared the crap outta me and i jumped 3 feet in the air it seemed when it hit.

[@Darrell_Coquillette]

Sounds like your doing all you can to stop it from hitting your tower. I hope I can get mine ready soon. Thank you for the comment. 73 de N9JOD

[@Jennifer-007]

May I ask why you have not shown a single piece of equipment or damage?

[@Darrell_Coquillette]

I had to send out all the computer and network equipment to be looked at by a local shop. This was requested by the insurance company. I will try and get some things together and show in a video.

[@PrecisionGroupYT]

USAA asked for photos and replacement costs but not how long I had them for but I did loose $2K on the deductible best of luck you will get through this! 73

[@Darrell_Coquillette]

This has sure been an eye opener for me. I didn't know how much work I was going to have to put in myself to get them to pay off on it. Thank you for the comment.

[@KY4TRK]

If ya know if a storm is a coming get them coax's disconnected from the radios and cable's firm the computers to the radios disconnected. Lightning 🌩 aresters would have probably helped saved your backside on some things and disconnected the roter cable's from the controller. I know dx engineering has a grou d system for darn near everything for a shack setup with coax, router cable's, internet cat cable's grounding system, and if you have room in your Power Panel but in a whole house surge protector on the power panel. Just giving you some suggestions. I know the whole home surge units In the power panel are equipment savers, though having surge protectors elsewhere are also advisable with a whole home one also. Best of hamin on. 73

[@Darrell_Coquillette]

You are so right on that. I need to do a better job on grounding and disconnecting my equipment. I do a great job on the woodworking tools But missed a couple things on the radio side and that cost me. Thanks for the comment and advice.73 de N9JOD

[@KH07734]

It must be that time of the year, I starred a tune of 80 meters on my Yaesu 991a using my ldg z100plus and the tuner smoked…. I have used this same configuration for about 2 years and out of the blue it just smokes! I wonder if the solar storms have anything to do with it?

[@Darrell_Coquillette]

Wow! That's maybe what caused it. Hope you got things repaired and are up running again. Thank you for the comment. 73 de N9JOD

[@Subgunman]

Cadwelding the grounds IS THE BEST WAY to have a solid ground system! Most of the skyscrapers I have worked on the ground lines are Cadwelded to the skyscrapers metal framing which is part of the ground on the structure. When you get the ground system in then it will be time to get your tower climber in. This way he can lower the trashed antennas and feed line and pull up the new stuff in one day. I know the feeling about not having a computer for programming a lot of my radios. The laptop that had all of my software on decided to die on me. I need to send it in and see if they can recover most of the software on it. Then the power supply board developed issues with bad electrolytics. Found a replacement board now I need to get everything sent out and boards back in. And hope it fires up again.

[@Darrell_Coquillette]

My climber just picked up a bunch of Cadwelding molds. So I've talked to him about using it here when I put in the ground system. Thanks for the comment and advice.

[@tracyleewilliamson4727]

WILL BRING MY WI-FI EXTENDER IN NASTY WEATHER

[@KY4TRK]

If all you did was Smoke a diode on the FTM 400 you're lucky...

[@Darrell_Coquillette]

I'm hoping that all that's wrong with it. We'll see. Thanks for the comment. 73 de N9JOD

[@peterdeyanov5056]

Are those tubes behind you the antenna duplexers? Just kidding, man. Once again, I'm sorry for what happened, but look on the bright side. Instead of FTM-400 (I also have it and FTM-100), now you can get FTM-300 :) With small steps you will recover. I sincerely hope. When lightning strikes, it doesn't have to be a direct hit to burn all your equipment. Huge currents and voltages are induced in every metal object and wire around the impact that immediately destroys all semiconductors. IF the equipment touches the ground. IF there is no cirquit, no problem. When you disconnect the antenna, a spark can jump between the antenna and the radio, so this is not enough. Move the radio to the side or the end of the antenna. Disconnect all power cords, USB cables, patch cords, etc., so that there are no potentials on the equipment. I'm sure that you know all those thing, now you've learned it by the hard way. I read all the previous comments, there are many 73's at the end of them. Sorry we can't help you, but there was some good advices. I have subscribed to your channel and look forward to your next videos how is the odyssey going :) Best 73, mate.

[@peterdeyanov5056]

So they are realy duplexers!

[@Darrell_Coquillette]

Yes that is the 6m Duplexer. And I hope to get them tuned soon. Thank you so much for the comment and subscribing to my channnel. 73 de N9JOD

[@thuff3207]

I know it tough when hit by lighting. Yes giving lighting a good place to go reduces damage but a direct hit is thought. I would see what is covered under insurance and start there.

[@Darrell_Coquillette]

Thank you for the comment. I'm slowly getting things back going again. Not fun at all.

[@John-h9q7c]

Make sure you use an ESD matt and strap. Don’t want make things worse.

[@Darrell_Coquillette]

I will, I need a better ESD system here. Thank you for the comment.

[@BigJohnsHamShack]

I'll loan you a laptop if you would like.

[@Darrell_Coquillette]

Thank you for the offer. I finally got some new computers here. I'm slowly getting things back going again. Thank you for the comment.

[@user-ef3nu1eh7z]

But did the tower survive????

[@Darrell_Coquillette]

The tower itself made it. The vertical on top took the hit. The rotator is down and the beam isn't good. Thank you for the comment.

[@Anthony-cq7lb]

Just found your channel when I saw your video about the lightning. Hopefully you can get stuff repaired without too much expense.

[@Darrell_Coquillette]

Thank you for the comment. I'm working to get things back going again.

[@darbymathis7670]

Good job friend. Hang in there and you will get thru this... I was spared this last bad storm...but i have had the same event as you have had a few years back. It'll work out, and you will look back on this in the rear view mirror and smile. 73 Wd9M

[@Darrell_Coquillette]

I'm getting things back to normal here little by little. It's not fun to go thru for anyone. 73 de N9JOD

[@AdamDeal-KF0PRI]

its a real shame it happen! but for all of us its something to think of when there lightning to unplug all our important equipment when a storm comes our way!

[@Darrell_Coquillette]

You are so right on that. Thank you for the comment.

[@AdamDeal-KF0PRI]

@@Darrell_Coquillette I do recommend getting two antenna switches you can switch to ground to keep that from happening again!

[@WaterFaucet24]

@@AdamDeal-KF0PRIThe big thing to learn is to unplug computer network cables and USB cables. I think most of his damage was through those lines and not coax.

[@Darrell_Coquillette]

You're pretty right on that. Most of the damage was from the network equipment.