[HCDX] Lightening & EWE Antenna

[mwdxer@xxxxxxxxx (Patrick Martin)]

Hi everyone,

As many of you know, I have used a EWE antenna since 1981. Living on the
Oregon coast, we very rarely get any lightening. Infact I believe the
OR/WA coast gets less lightening than about anywhere in the country.
Well, we had one lightening storm last night and for us, it was a doozy.
Nothing compared to what most of the country has, but still a strong one
for the coast. Infact KAST-1370 was knocked off the air for several
hours.
   Last night after the storm, I hooked up my antennas back up and I
noticed that the pattern of the EWE seemed really out of wack. So this
afternoon after church, I thought I would check it out. The nulls to the
South were not there. So I hooked up my old signal generator as a
transmitter and set the R8 on 820 khz where I was getting KGNW Seattle
S9+20 DB, no sign of KORC Waltport OR. I could monitor the 820 freq with
a portable out at the site.  So I knew my pattern was really off. So out
I went to the termination point through the neighbors fence, through the
sheep. I checked the control, as I thought maybe the sheep had knocked
it off, but I put it behind some heavy screen, and it looked fine. I
turned the control (2.5K ohm pot) and nothing, no difference, no matter
where I tuned it. I came back in the house and got my Volt Ohm Meter and
out I went again. Cut the wires on the control. I then put the meter
across the terminals and zero ohms. In the process some carbon fell out
of the control. I think most controls are no more than 1/2 watt, maybe
1/4 watt. I guess with all of the lightening flashing around there was
enough electricity in the air to burn out the control. I always have
extras but I only had 5K ohm pots, so that will have to do until I can
find some 2.5K ohm ones. I like those better as the null is not as
sharp, as the control is at 900+ ohms.
But I guess even though there is no direct hit or even a hit close by,
lightening can still do damage. The shortest period of time (that I
heard) between the lightening and thunder was 2-3 seconds. So it wasn't
really overhead. But it was quite the experience. By my EWE is back
working fine again. For the record, I have lived on the coast most of my
life and I have never seen a lightening storm this wild. If there has
been one, we have to back 35 or 40 years probably.

73,

Patrick

Patrick Martin
Seaside  OR
KAVT Reception Manager

---[Start Commercial]---------------------

World Radio TV Handbook 2005 is out. 
Order yours from http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0823077942/hardcoredxcom

---[End Commercial]-----------------------
________________________________________
Hard-Core-DX mailing list
Hard-Core-DX@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://dallas.hard-core-dx.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx
http://www.hard-core-dx.com/
_______________________________________________

THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed
and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License
published by Michael Stutz at http://dsl.org/copyleft/dsl.txt