Hi Simon and Group, You will find you dont need local flashes and bangs to
get big voltages on a wire aerial. The mere process of highly charged (but
below breakdown)clouds passing overhead will create a very high vertical
potential gradient which the aerial will sample. If you stick one of those
small wire ended neons on a isolated aerial it will flash, often when there
is no audible thunder around. The current generated by this often passes
through the fine wire on the RX input transformer on the way to ground, and
can easily fuse the wire. Thus you can lose the front end of the Rx without
being "struck by lightning" This is why many amateurs prefer grounded coils
with link coupling.

Keep abreast of where the noises are coming from and whether you are next in
line to a "visitation" at  http://129.13.102.67/pics/Rsfloc.gif It is
usually about half an hour behind real time. The plot covers from the
Canaries to Russia, and from the Arctic to North Africa, with the times
colour coded, so you can see the storms moving. The info URL to the TORRO
site does not work but if you strip it back to the index page you will find
a fascinating university web site on how to avoid becoming a statistic,
espectially if you play golf !!

Cheers de Alan G3NYK
[email protected]