Ouch, and such a young one too! There's a message here - when Ma Nature visits with lightning, unless you're an electrical engineer with a perfect station configuration, the only relatively secure way to do things is to disconnect everything. Even a relatively short length of cable (RS-232, network, whatever) can pick up enough induced voltage from a nearby strike to do damage.
73, Pete N4ZR The World Contest Station Database, updated daily at www.conteststations.com The Reverse Beacon Network at http://reversebeacon.net, blog at reversebeacon.blogspot.com, spots at telnet.reversebeacon.net, port 7000 On 8/12/2010 7:13 AM, Gary Dezern wrote: > 4 grounding rods and two of those alpha delta gas discharge surge protectors > couldn't stop mother nature. It appears my K3 has met a very early death by > electrocution (from lightning.) > > It turns on, but even after an EE INIT, I'm still getting a KP3IO error. > There's a god awful noise coming from the speaker when its turned on even > with no antenna attached. Sounds like wind howling or something. The > autotuner sounds like marbles rattling around instead of relays clicking. > The KPA100 tests are all whacked out: PAIO TST turns on the fans. FN1 turns > them both on at full speed. FN2 turns them both off. FN3 turns them back on > again. FN4 drops the fans back off again. > > I opened the top, but there's no obvious damage inside... nothing is burned > that I can see. > > I also lost the computer that was attached to the K3... as a matter of fact, > the USB/serial adapter actually blew apart. The shell of the DB9 was > scattered on the floor under my desk and the little circuit board inside is > scorched. That computer won't turn on. No visible damage I can see inside. > > Another machine, a NAS, that wasn't connected to the radio or even on the > same power circuit also died. > > I haven't seen any other obvious damage yet. > > I hope my insurance covers this... if so, Elecraft can be expecting to see > another order from me soon. (Strange way to get a repeat customer, eh?) > > Gary / k3wow (formally k3 4407) > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > > > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
