Hello Mike,
I doubt that the street light had a 'direct hit' from lightning. So far I
have seen the remains of a direct hit on 2 occasions, one was a 15m high
oak that was reduced to a pile of burnt wood. The other occasion was the
shack of another ham that was hit by lightning, resulting in all electric
wires trown out of the wall, all alumium framed windows broken. Further all
electronic equipement was damaged, even those that were not connected to
anything.
The fact that the street lamp is still alive (not even signs of burn) make
me believe that it was a case of 'induction', not a direct hit.
73, Rik ON7YD
At 11:25 28/06/01 +0100, you wrote:
More on my near miss with lightning.
I have spoken to several neighbours in my road. Two saw the strike which
appeared to hit a street lamp 50 yards from my house. There is no sign of
damage to the lamp. One witness said the lightning struck the ground and
then
flashed across to everything in the road.
Although there are no burn marks anywhere, one neighbour's modem was
destroyed and another had the inside of his video recorder turned to ashes.
Even stranger was someone who reported a singing Christmas decoration
switching itself on whilst in its storage box in a cupboard.
I have checked my house wiring and it seems that one of the socket feeds
has gone open circuit. It did not blow the fuse, and I now have to trace the
wiring in case there is a fire risk from the burnt out wires.
It seems I was very lucky to get away with just a wrecked pre-amp, as the
whole shack, including my computer, was switched on at the time of the
strike.
Luckily the neighbours saw the lightning strike the road or lamp. I was
afraid
they would blame my masts for attracting it.
Mike, G3XDV (IO91VT)
http://www.lf.thersgb.net
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