Topic: Lightning hit my home.VP2 reaction questions

[dasman]

On Saturday evening my home fell victim to lightning. It appears it entered my home through my satellite dish. The loses in the home were, satellite LNB, satellite 8 way splitter, satellite SWIM unit, 3 satellite boxes, 3 Tvs (75in, 56in, 47in) internet modem, Orbi mesh wifi system, powered ethernet hub, gfci outlet in bathroom, electric dog fence control unit, motors for foot rests on 2 couches, and a few ring cameras.

After the the bolt scared the $@#$%&** out of me (i was on my deck/ dumb I know), i went inside to check the weather station. The Davis VP2 console was blank. I verlfied power, and changed batteries. No immediate help (no reception but unit appears to be powered ok). After about 90 minutes it started receiving the signal from the ISS. However i was not recieving signal from my anemometer which is on the Village Hall roof 400 ft away. It transmits using the anemometer transmitter kit on station #8. The next day (Sunday) i started receiving data from the anemometer arround 3 in the afternoon. The data seemed good. I already had ordered a replacement transmitter and anemometer figuring they were shot . Sunday night, Monday,and Tuesday morning the console gave a low battery message for station 8 (anemometer). Tuesday mid morning the message was gone. Today the station is still functioning perfectly and no low battery message.

So for those of you with electrical knowledge...

1) why did ISS not trasmit or console not recieve for 90 minutes?
2) why did anemometer transmitter not transmit or console not recieve for 21 hours?
3) should i replace anemometer and transmitter or could they still be good?

Thank you in advance

[jackman]

The first thing I would suspect is battery/power issues. I'd replace all the batteries and see how things go. It's hard to know how a lightning strike would affect it. I'm surprised it works and glad to hear no one got hurt.

[dasman]

Thank you. Nobody was was hurt. I know there are/were power issues from the hit, my question is my curiosity  about how it starts working 24hrs later?

[dasman]

Just an update. The anemometer transmitter is still working and has not shown a low battery message sice Tuesday.  I think im going to let it go for a while to see what happens.

[Notsorusty]

One of my brothers was an ET in the Navy. His favorite quote: Electricity is magic, sometimes it goes away and sometimes it comes back.

[vreihen]

What is the worst-case RF connection recovery time if a Davis sensor and console lose their frequency-hopping synchronization?  Could that explain the 24-hour recovery delay?????

[johnd]

What is the worst-case RF connection recovery time if a Davis sensor and console lose their frequency-hopping synchronization?  Could that explain the 24-hour recovery delay?????

I don't think there are any definitive numbers around because of multiple variables. eg IIRC low channel numbers typically resynch more quickly than high. What's the S/N. Did it manage to resynch at the first time of asking or were there reasons, noise, unstable or off-tune crystal etc why resynching may have taken multiple goes. I've certainly known repeaters to take 24 hours or more to achieve synch but that's not quite the same as Tx direct to Rx.