Topic: Really close strike

[n2qew]

....Heck, even today, most every time Thor tosses one, he's getting jumped on by 35 or more "flash sucking" receivers...  he laughed when he'd only get 6-14... no sweat.
Things have changed, Big Guy.

Re: Cutty's network observations....Really good news and info!

But, be careful.... Don't piss off Thor . I think he's noticing.
9:04 EDT on 9 April, Thor dropped one really close to my house. Ate the Flightradar 24 and Planefinder receivers. Put the DSL modem to sleep. Tripped the GFI that the Blitzortung receiver was plugged into.

People working on the house across the street confirmed the closeness of the strike. Flash / bang at the same moment.

The Blitzortung receiver wasn't damaged. Probably because it is transformer isolated, and the two pairs coming in from the antenna pass through a surge suppressor composed of 1.5KE18CA TVS diodes. Fortunately, E-field wasn't connected.

[dfroula]

Yikes, I hate it when that happens!

I had one stroke drop a few blocks from my house last week, but sounded like it was in the back yard. The strike location was plotted on the site as having hit a security fence near the local public swimming pool.

I like the TV HV diode idea! My ADS-B PlanePlotter receiver LNA is protected by a Polyphaser lightning unit that is supposed to clamp to 6 volts. The unit also bleeds static charge off of the 8-element homebrew colinear antenna on the roof. No problems so far after a year, even during some very close strikes.

Don

EDIT: Hmm, think I misinterpreted TVS diodes as TV HV diodes, as from an old TV CRT HV section.    I may need to invest in a few of the TVS diodes. My Polyphaser uses a gas tube suppressor. I think some kind of radioactive element is in the tube to "bias" it, as there is a radioactive material disposal warning on the label.

[n2qew]

http://www.diodes.com/datasheets/ds21503.pdf
I'm using the 15volt bidirectional variety.

One diode from each side of the pair from the loop to ground. One across the loop pair. Ground equals building entry ground, which is the same point that the board is grounded. Remember also that I'm transformer isolated, so the antenna is not ground referenced. Local noise around the amplifier / controller has no influence on anything.

Unfortunately, the Flightradar 24 receiver isn't looking good. They've got a beaglebone in them. Apparently the Ethernet port is sensitive. Tried reloading their SW. No dice. It boots and everything, but no IP requested. Can't log in to it from the serial since I don't know their PW. Reloaded with generic beaglebone SW. Login, and ifconfig gives a bogus IPv6 address, and I see no attempts at DHCP out of it.