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I learnned the hard way....

J

jras20

Well sunday nights storms came through with a bang, I knew I should of unhooked my equipment, but I got lazy, next thing I knew I heard a loud bang, and there goes all of my stereo equipment, my tuner, a/v system everything. Strange thing was that my stereo wasnt hooked onto any outdoor coax, and it got the worst of the blast. My Denon tuner will still turn on, but it wont pick up anything, My direct tv and high speed internet got burned as well. Gues i'll be out of the dx'n for a while.
<P ID="signature">______________
jras20</P>
 
Gues i'll be out of the
> dx'n for a while.
>

Ouch! My condolances, J.R. How did it happen? Did lightning hit the power line, or did it come through the ground? I sometimes disconnect the roof antenna when there's lightning, but most often don't. I guess I've been lucky. And maybe you're lucky your house didn't burn down! I hope you can file on homeowners or renters insurance, but you'll probably not get much more than the deductable.
Que Lastima, Senor.
g
 
Even being around a strike will ruin a lot of equipment from inductance in lines.<P ID="signature">______________
</P>
 
> Gues i'll be out of the
> > dx'n for a while.
> >
>
> Ouch! My condolances, J.R. How did it happen? Did lightning
> hit the power line, or did it come through the ground? I
> sometimes disconnect the roof antenna when there's
> lightning, but most often don't. I guess I've been lucky.
> And maybe you're lucky your house didn't burn down! I hope
> you can file on homeowners or renters insurance, but you'll
> probably not get much more than the deductable.
> Que Lastima, Senor.
> g
>
I think it acually hit my pole, it ran down the coax wire and burnned out everything. I'm wondering though it may be cheaper if I just gone with Satellite radio now, I would probably half to replace my coax since I see some melted places, funny thing is, which I'm kind of glad, that it didnt burn out my tv. I'm having to use my rabbit ears on it for better reception got my direct tv back up also ;).<P ID="signature">______________
jras20</P>
 
> I think it acually hit my pole, it ran down the coax wire
> and burnned out everything.

Chances are, it just burned out the very first input stage. If you are very lucky, just the transistor. Been there, done that - wires in the coils make pretty good conductors for thousands of amps for a split second, but that juncion doesn't. I have seen direct hits by lightning strikes that only took out one transistor, when replaced the unit springs back to life.

If it got anything else, likely it was the output transistors / IC's. When the lightning hits, it has a tendency to put the ground of the unit at very high potential. Fortunately - that means that even if everything was on, it was only different by normal supply voltages. But - most speaker wire is monstously inductive, and resists a change in its magnetic field. So what takes the hit is the output transistors (discrete or buried in the IC).

So - to summarize - I would probably shotgun the input and output stages of the affected equipment. It is very unlikely that the damage went further, as the affected elements acted like fuses and then you had high impedance. The lightning no longer "saw" a good path to ground, and selected some other path.

When it happened to me about 20 years ago, I went and invested in $200 worth of Isobar surge suppressors (that I still use today). And I also got serious about lightning protection on my outdoor antenna - although my hit was right through the wall, then one foot into a junky surge suppressor. It took out my output transistors, but only in one channel. Everything else was fine. I used the amp for five years after than until I got a better one.

The best protection: Those quick disconnect adapters for 75 ohm cable. I only hook up the antenna when I am listening to the tuner. The rest of the time, it sits disconnected. I hook up an indoor antenna by default for my non-DX'er wife.


> I'm wondering though it may be
> cheaper if I just gone with Satellite radio now, I would
> probably half to replace my coax since I see some melted
> places, funny thing is, which I'm kind of glad, that it
> didnt burn out my tv. I'm having to use my rabbit ears on
> it for better reception got my direct tv back up also ;).
 
My amp did turn on, and the speakers were mest up, didnt really have much input power. I know I should of unhooked everything, but I was lazy and didnt.

What do you think about my FM tuner though, I turned it on, I can get static, but it will not pick up anything, it wont stop on any station, it wont pick up any am stations, nothing. But I think I get a sound, but I hear a humm in it also, would it be worth trying to fix it or will it be to expensive? I'm slowly comming back, still havnt got my high speed modem yet, that got burnned out also.

Gues from now on I'll just do what you do, I'll unhook it everytime I turn it off. Thats if I come back all the way dxn.<P ID="signature">______________
jras20</P>
 
> My amp did turn on, and the speakers were mest up, didnt
> really have much input power. I know I should of unhooked
> everything, but I was lazy and didnt.
>
> What do you think about my FM tuner though, I turned it on,
> I can get static, but it will not pick up anything, it wont
> stop on any station, it wont pick up any am stations,
> nothing. But I think I get a sound, but I hear a humm in it
> also, would it be worth trying to fix it or will it be to
> expensive? I'm slowly comming back, still havnt got my high
> speed modem yet, that got burnned out also.
>
> Gues from now on I'll just do what you do, I'll unhook it
> everytime I turn it off. Thats if I come back all the way
> dxn.
>
Hey there sorry to here about the bad news jras20

I have had some really close calls. One day back in July of 2004 I was going to head down to Houston for my cousins wedding and some storms blew through the DFW area at the last minute. I heard the thunder off in the distance and this was at 2:45 in the morning, I had my antenna which were rabbit ears with the ears flattend to form a T, mounted on a conduit pipe, I went outside trying not to wake my parents up and took it down. Another close call I had was last June. My parents were down in Hawaii and I had the house all to my self and I decided to go bike riding that evening and forgot to take down my antenna, which is a VU 75XR antenna from Radio Shack, I got home about 9:00 or so and saw the radar and had to hurry to disconnect my antenna. My set up is like this.
VU 75XR antenna attached to a ten foot piece of conduit pipe and U-bolted to the fence. I use the same cable run that I use for my cable TV connection, when I want to use my antenna I disconnect the cable from the cable splitter and connet my antenna to the cxable run, and when I am not using my antenna I connect it back to the cable splitter.

ALWAYS GROUND YOUR ANTENNA AND LEAD IN WIRE!!!!!
I can't stress that enough.

Good luck on finding new and salvaging your equipment.
and sorry agin about the bad news<P ID="signature">______________
"I'm a gonna go to hell when I die!" Connan O'Brien

"yay boo, yay boo, it's lots of fun to do, if ya like it holler yay, and if ya don't ya holler boo!"

Connan O'Brien
</P>
 
> What do you think about my FM tuner though, I turned it on,
> I can get static, but it will not pick up anything,

Input transistor - hopefully that is all in the signal chain. The coils are usually robust enough to take it. It sounds like it was blown completely open, and the RF stage next in the chain is amplifying noise. Too bad you aren't near a really high power station, it should leak through.

The hum is probably a blown power supply diode or diode bridge. Like the amp outputs, it is a low impedance path for energy to discharge.

Inquire on the Yahoo FM tuners group to see if anybody there knows a competant service technician in your area. Yes- it is probably worth fixing, I would count on at least $100 to $150 unless you can do it yourself. It probably has about 2 or 3 dollars worth of parts out.

Personally, I would take the time while I was in there to put a better transistor in the front end, maybe put in better ceramic filters in the IF. That is one of those rare win-win scenarios that helps both sensitivity and selectivity.

And in the power supply - you can seldom go wrong by replacing with 1n4007's or the next current level up. I forget the number. 4007's are 1 Amp and there is a real common 3A. Keep the peak inverse voltage up and you may spare yourself another power supply hit. They probably put something cheap in.

> Gues from now on I'll just do what you do, I'll unhook it
> everytime I turn it off.

I started doing that when I spent 10 years in Florida, the lightning capital of the world.
 
Thanks, I really dont know to much about that stuff, wish you lived closer I would drive over and we could look at it, I dont know what I'll do with it yet. I have a old integrated JVC amp that I have hooked up now that I baught at a yard sale for 5$ a while back, I'm using Direct tv's XM radio right now for my radio. I'm not sure really what I'll be doing yet on my radio equipment..<P ID="signature">______________
jras20</P>
 
> Thanks, I really dont know to much about that stuff, wish
> you lived closer I would drive over and we could look at it,
> I dont know what I'll do with it yet. I have a old
> integrated JVC amp that I have hooked up now that I baught
> at a yard sale for 5$ a while back, I'm using Direct tv's XM
> radio right now for my radio. I'm not sure really what I'll
> be doing yet on my radio equipment..

If you want to pay to ship it both ways - I could look at it. I still have a stock of those low noise FETs that work well in front ends. Contact me off the board if you want the address. If it's toast, I'll tell you so you won't have to pay for shipping back.

I am fixing an old Heathkit AR1300 someone gave me that got hit by lightning years ago, its been in a garage since - so I'm getting pretty used to this sort of thing! Toasted transistor in the front end, it gets about two local high power stations very faintly through static (sound familiar?)
 
> If you want to pay to ship it both ways - I could look at
> it. I still have a stock of those low noise FETs that work
> well in front ends. Contact me off the board if you want
> the address. If it's toast, I'll tell you so you won't have
> to pay for shipping back.
>
> I am fixing an old Heathkit AR1300 someone gave me that got
> hit by lightning years ago, its been in a garage since - so
> I'm getting pretty used to this sort of thing! Toasted
> transistor in the front end, it gets about two local high
> power stations very faintly through static (sound familiar?)
>
Ok, let me see whats going on first, right now I have my super radio connected to my antenna I'm just testing out to see if my coax is still good, it sounds good, picks up San antonio like a local. Something happened with my TV antenna though. It seems like its all hooked up, and the wire still seems to be in good shape, but the TV is just not very clear as it use to be. I have my TV antenna going to Austin about 27' up and its only about 32 miles away. I dont think it hurt any of my TV equipment, because my Rabbit ears pick the channels up a lot better. What does that sound like to you?<P ID="signature">______________
jras20</P>
 
Probably - an open somewhere in the coax. Or possibly a short somewhere off of a null.
 
> Probably - an open somewhere in the coax. Or possibly a
> short somewhere off of a null.
>
So probably the sulution to that would just be to change out that coaxal wire? That antenna has been there since this house was built I think 20 years ago, this was probably the first real strike, or close to it for it to fry all of my stuff.
<P ID="signature">______________
jras20</P>
 
>probably the sulution to that would just be to change out
> that coaxal wire? That antenna has been there since this
> house was built I think 20 years ago, this was probably the
> first real strike, or close to it for it to fry all of my
> stuff.

I would check the matching transformer, probably change it and the coax as well. After a strike, you do what the stations do. Start from scratch, rebuild the system.
 
> >probably the sulution to that would just be to change out
> > that coaxal wire? That antenna has been there since this
> > house was built I think 20 years ago, this was probably
> the
> > first real strike, or close to it for it to fry all of my
> > stuff.
>
> I would check the matching transformer, probably change it
> and the coax as well. After a strike, you do what the
> stations do. Start from scratch, rebuild the system.
>
Ok, I wonder though if its the stations also? Keye-tv is the clearest as it always been, channel 42. 7 18, 24, 54 are all distorted, I can pull in San antonio on the backside of it fairlly well, channel 23, 29, 12, 4, 5. Wonder if the Tv stations got fried at there tower also?
<P ID="signature">______________
jras20</P><P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by jras20 on 03/24/06 03:32 PM.</FONT></P>
 
> Wonder if the
> Tv stations got fried at there tower also?

They are pretty well protected. But if something does get zapped, they rebuild. Off the air time is expensive!

As for your system, Isolate problems and solve them. Toss anything suspect like transmission line or matching networks. And as you rebuild, put lightning suppression into your budget. It is cheap compared to replacing your equipment! Believe me, even fixing a simple one is hours and hours of hard work, tracking down exactly how far into the signal chain the surge propagated, then tracing down obsolete parts and finding suitable replacements. It is far better to avoid the problem in the first place.
 
> > Wonder if the
> > Tv stations got fried at there tower also?
>
> They are pretty well protected. But if something does get
> zapped, they rebuild. Off the air time is expensive!
>
> As for your system, Isolate problems and solve them. Toss
> anything suspect like transmission line or matching
> networks. And as you rebuild, put lightning suppression
> into your budget. It is cheap compared to replacing your
> equipment! Believe me, even fixing a simple one is hours
> and hours of hard work, tracking down exactly how far into
> the signal chain the surge propagated, then tracing down
> obsolete parts and finding suitable replacements. It is far
> better to avoid the problem in the first place.
>
Thanks well, it may be a while but I'll try to get all of my networking back up again, I'm not sure how long it will take me though! Thanks again, I'll try to let you know something about my tuner next week, I'll email you. Thanks again.<P ID="signature">______________
jras20</P>
 
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