Lightning strike experience

[colbec]

Night before last a very close hit blew my switch at the road cutting my power and causing damage to connected equipment. Here's the tally:

Dead: SG2100 motor, 2 C-Band lnbs, 1 linear lnb, diseqc switch, computer carrying the AIW card that I use as a TV (although the card and hard drive survived), M-Audio keyboard that was not switched on but was connected to the power supply

Survived intact: old dish networks circular lnb on Bell Expressvu dish,

Problematic: Coolsat 6000 does everything fine except tune a signal. Blind scans are all empty and signal strength and quality meters fluctuate according to what is connected but do not do anything and do not behave in any kind of consistent manner. Is there a hardware factory reset that might be of help here?

The 103G has been the saviour here. The computer in which it is installed for some odd reason survived the surge (connected but switched off). It has enabled me to check what is working and what is dead.

 

[Tron]

Colbec, sorry to hear about your loss. Did you have surge insurance with the power company? I don't know anything about the CS 6000, but it sounds like the memory might have been corrupted. Also, you could try a re-flash of the firmware, or possibly a TJAG (not sure how this is done, since I've never had to do it). Strange that it killed your SG-2100 and left the receiver somewhat functional. Perhaps a reset of the SG-2100 (paper clip push in the pinhole next to the LED) will set it right.

 

[colbec]

Hey Tron, thanks for commiserations, I have homeowners insurance but after deductible it is not worth the claim. At least I can still get my Gumbo channel from E*7 via the 103G!

Tried lots of things with the SG2100 including reset button, but there is no green light or any light at all. It is a pile of spare parts. I don't think I will replace it. My next route will be multiple lnbs on a single dish, if necessary with multiple diseqc switches.

CS6000 - unfortunately the serial port seems to be N/S. I had left the serial cable connected to the computer box that died, and I think the CS serial interface died in sympathy. Maybe the power supply card in the CS is OK, may come in useful one day.

Colin

 

[Wescopc]

colbec
Sorry to hear of your troubles, I am glad you got the 103G running within the last week.
I am wondering whether your setup was protected by a coax ground block - connected to your service ground? I have wondered whether these things protect the equipment or the people (or maybe just the structure) from lightning.
Bob

 

[colbec]

Hi Bob, grounding was in place but evidently was not sufficient. The service (house) grounding is 250' away from the dish farm on the other side of the house so I drove a long rod into the ground at the dish location. Evidently not good enough. I don't have any other experience of grounding failures.

In reviewing the damage (I am sure I will be corrected if I am wrong) quite a lot of telephony stuff was zapped. Cordless phone base station, faxing ability of a multifunction laser printer (still prints ok), Digium telephony card (computer that it was in is ok). So this says maybe the hydro/phone wires were hit, not the dish farm directly. However it was close enough that voltages were induced in my coaxes sufficient to take out the switch, lnbs and the receiver. My hydro switch at the road was the only one to trip, so it says the strike was on my private line, not the main service line on the road. However there is no sign of damaged trees. Maybe it hit the house, I do have a steel roof.

All just the imaginings of a non-expert who knows less about it than anybody.

 

[caddata]

....quite a lot of telephony stuff was zapped....

Colbec:

The lightning surge may well have entered thru your phone service and left thru your electrical service. It's happened before to me. Phone and cable services are the worst when it comes to grounding their equipment. Electrical companies aren't that great either.

Worked summers for Arkansas Power and Light as a student. Every year the job was to verify grounds on power poles. If the "megger" (test meter that verified a power pole's potential to earth) reading was low, our instructions were to add several buckets of water to the base of the power pole until an acceptable reading was made. The water temporarily improved the conductivity of the coil of wire on the bottom of the pole. Wooden power poles are grounded to earth by a wire wound into a coil on top that extends down to another coil wound on the bottom. I probably passed some poles that weren't actually grounded.

I don't ground my dishes. Never had a problem or suffered damage because of lightning. If you ground that sucker you've mand a lightning rod that prays for lightning to strike it. My only problems have been with phone lines frying modems and computers. You might be suprised that many hams don't ground their "long wire" antennas. Same logic as mine applies on grounding them.

Harold

 

[SatelliteAV]

If the ground rod at the dish farm wasn't bonded to the house ground there is a very good chance that the discharge was actually routed through your equipment rather than away! Driving additional ground rods that are not tied into the structural ground also causes grounding potentials that can be very dangerous.

 

[voomvoom]

Now this is just terrible! I hate when I read this kind of thread. It puts unwanted stress and worry between my ears. Fear, Fear, Fear.... I'm really sorry it happened to you, I guess it's time to go and Pray again, and again, and again. Can't ever Pray to much? Hopefully you'll be able to absorb the cost and get going again real soon. Good Luck!

Al

 

[dodge]

lightning strike

too bad you did not have any other bad non working electronics you could claim were fried help out with insurance reasons. A few years ago a neighbor of my dads tree was hit, jumped to cable co coax in the ground and took out anything that was connected to a tv , vcr dvd, etc and all the phones and the garage door opener. blew the cable tv co splitters in half and even blew out the balun on his winegard tv antenna. the insurance gave hime enough money to replace all the damaged stuff and get a new 55" big screen hdtv and have a guy come out and put up a new winegard tv antenna, and fm antenna for the 2 denon 5.1 receivers he got.

 

[Covack]

Colbec, I hate it for your loss, I just went through this about 6 weeks ago.I had a long list of items hit.
I filed mine on HOI, deduct was 2 high but I recovered some of my losses.
My sg2100 was fried, also, I sent my traxis back to DMS and the digital tuner was
bad in it. hopefully You can recoup some of Your loss

 

[colbec]

Thanks Brian and Harold. I have disconnected my secondary ground. I should investigate the grounding on the Bell Canada phone line.

New observations:
1. A 100$ motor can save a 30$ lnb.
2. One of the C-Band lnbs, a California Amplifier, still works on Vertical polarization so it is great for a fixed dish on G9/G13 for BBC World.