THE BIG SNAP  Lightning Wipes Out KWARC IRLP Nodes... by Paul VE3SY

I would much rather be writing this news article about another location however as I put finger to keyboard I am just getting more or less back to normal following a direct lightning hit on Friday September 21st.

A severe thunderstorm (very manly in TVS terms) was passing through the area as I was just down to supper. Lightning was striking fast and furious around us including trees within several hundred yards. Suddenly a bright flash - snap - and then the crash of thunder told me the tower was just hit. 

To confirm my suspicions, I took a quick look out the door in the rain and saw what was left of my tri-band diamond antenna (see inset) I then proceeded to the shack and as I descended down the stairs the ominous smell told me it would not be a pretty picture.

John Olsen from Schindler Tower atop the mast standing on the 15 metre yagi with the new Diamond antenna hanging from his safety belt

I first fired up my low-band FT1000MP and it seemed to work fine including the HF antennas on the tower (whew) I then noticed the lights on the two IRLP nodes were both dead. I had just upgraded both nodes with DELL Pentium machines one only 3 days before the strike. Also the commercial VHF node radio and my commercial VHF radio that I use for KSR that is connected to our phone system was in hard transmit and would not un-key without powering off. 

Then I discovered half of our phone system was inoperative as well as the alarm system and my 48 VDC rotator power supply. I took the Dell computers out for evaluation and discovered the mother boards in both were toast as was the sound card and one of the IRLP boards. 

I still had the old PC that I had been using on VE3RBM so I salvaged the one good IRLP board and put the old P133 back together. Since the PGP (pretty good privacy) security key was the same as on the new machine, I was able to get the RBM node back up limping along. The VHF node was down for a month until a replacement antenna was delivered and Schindler Tower could arrive to install same 

Several weeks later when I went to use my Cushman service monitor I discovered it must have taken a hit as well since when the line fuse was replaced flames shot out of the power supply then the fuse blew. While we have replacement value insurance I did not want to give the insurance company a reason to cancel our insurance since a new service monitor is over $20,000. With this in mind I was able to locate a used replacement for a far more reasonable cost.

The last item that I have found with damage is my FT1000MP. While I have been using it most evenings on 75m, I went to work some DX and discovered my log program would not communicate with the serial port on the radio. The radio will be off to Radio World next week and hopefully this is not too serious. The insurance claim is still open.

So far I have been very impressed with the Economical Insurance Company. Each of the claim cheques have been received within a week however the first cheque was less our $500 deductible. Our February meeting is scheduled to be on lightning protection with a speaker from the PolyPhaser Corporation. While I was using PolyPhaser protection on all antennas I DID NOT have one on my VHF/UHF antenna which is what the lightning hit and made it's way into the shack.

I now have a VHF PolyPhaser that will be installed on the heliax from the new antenna so hopefully if we sustain another strike it won't make it past the protection devices.

As of this writing both IRLP nodes are back up with replacement Dell machines and a new IRLP board for the VHF node. The commercial link radios have been replaced with Motorola units and as the photo shows the new Diamond antenna is now in place.

Our alarm system and phone system have been replaced and it took several extra hours to solve RFI problems (RF Interference) between my HF station and the Alarm system. A few torroids and a repositioning of one alarm keypad to shorten the length of wire to the main panel resolved all interference.

Outstanding items is to find a replacement 48 VDC supply for the rotator and locate a couple of 110VAC 60CY selsyn motors for the beam heading indicator and we hopefully will be back to normal.

73 de Paul

Map to KWARC Meetings