An inductive lightning

Since I have ever had a direct lightning strike some 15 years ago, which caused much damage to the household electrical items, I always disconnect all the cables and lines to them before or in any thunderstorm.

This evening, thunders have rumbled in the distance. It was not so close to us. I was even doing gardening in drizzle for a while after thunders started. All of sudden, however, a harsh big thunder like a fire roared in the vicinity. Of course, I hurried pulling out all the cables and lines from electrical items including the ham radio equipments as I usually do.

In half an hour, the storm has gone. I tried to switch on the equipments. The amplifier, VL1000 from Yaesu, won't be turned on at all. The braker was OK. I rushed looking for a tester in the closet. A friend of mine, Spence N6SC already SK, has brought me a small tester almost 25 years ago, i remembered. But it didn't show up to me. if it were before me, it could run out the battery or even won't work after such a long interval. I foound a couple of air conditioners have acted up as well. It convinced me a surge due to inductive lightning had caused these troubles. I was kinda relieved to know what had happened.

I should go on with barefoot for a while. I should say I was lucky to have had only this damage due to the inductive lightning this time. I learned that I should disconnect everything as soon as I know a thunderstorm is coming here. A few days ago, I have just givne this comment to the other's blog where the author was worrying about the damage due to lightning. I was inattentive to the possible damage due to lightning.

The interval of 3 seconds between lightning and thunder means it is only 1km away from us. We should be quickly ready for that. There could be an inductive lightning through the AC line even if we were free from the direct strike of lightning. Bill, N4AR, an owner of several high towers, used to tell me to pull all the plugs and connectors as soon as I knew thunderstorm approaching here. It is the only way we could do with this menace of nature. I have learned it again today.