Lightning strike

[19psi]

Few days ago I was watching TV and then went downstairs for a few minutes. Out of nowhere a bad storm rolled in and I immediately pulled the plugs and antenna connections on everything downstairs. As I was heading back up, the house lit up with a loud buzz and then the deafening thunder crack followed by strange sounds from my home's alarm system. Thought for sure my rooftop antenna took a hit.

TV was still on upstairs showing the X2's frozen graphic screen with vertical lines going through it. Tried to turn the TV and X2 off with their remotes before pulling the plug but neither responded so I just killed the power.
After the storm passed, I turned everything back on. TV displayed no signal no matter what I selected. By-passed the Mitsu's 3D box and still no good. Turned out my nice Onkyo 5.1 receiver took a hit and would no longer pass HDMI output.
Plugged the X2 into my TV and it seemed to work but no signal. Tried changing satellites and still no signal. Looked outside and the dish was stuck on 125W. When I unplugged the LNB, the SG2100 came back to life!
I pulled the cap off the LNB and it smelled burnt inside. A new LNB arrived today and I'm back up in action...along with a new 1050 watt 7.2 Sony receiver. I'm amazed the $40 X2 Mini survived!

I guess I got lucky as it only took out those two items. I'm usually on it when it comes to storms, I even unplug everything before I go to work if there is any bad weather predicted, but this one blind sided me.

My question is, what can I do to prevent this in the future? I'm assuming this was just a nearby strike which traveled in through my dish. My rooftop antenna has a proper earth ground rod but I never did anything with the 1 meter Ku dish planted in my backyard. The steel pole is deep in the ground so I figured any static build up or lightning hit would take that path.
My coax has a separate external ground...would it be worth attaching that the LNB arm and then attaching it to a separate ground rod driven next to the dish (or a ground in the house)? Or is this a deal where I would need to run a few hundred feet of ground wire to my house's earth ground?

 

[FaT Air]

You disconnected the coax to the LNBF Before turning the X2 off? Think you fried the LNBF then and there. The storm passing only makes you think 'it did it'.
How to prevent this - turn off the equipment before disconnecting anything.
Another thing to do is put a turn or 2 loop in all cables from the equipment that leaves your premiss. Coax, phone cords, power cords. Power cords plugged into a surge strip should also have a loop. The power cord of the power strip should not. [[This works for Me]] Just had a good thunderstorm roll thru-

 

[19psi]

Nope. No signal and no motor movement which is why I disconnected the LNB after the fact during troubleshooting. Plugged the X2 back in, turned it on and the motor now worked perfect with the LNB disconnected.
Pretty sure the spike traveled in from that direction. Damage was contained to that home theater setup and it's the only one attached to my FTA dish.

 

[sergei]

You might look into getting both a really good grade surge protector and invest in some spike arrestors, one for the dish and the other ones for your equipment. I have Holland SA-1F on all my dishes and receivers. Most likely you had a near hit and not a direct hit. Also, I've never heard of putting a loop in cable helping with lighting , maybe someone can explain the reasoning behind it.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Just using one of those Panamax or crazy expensive surge protectors can do wonders.

My office had a surge, blew out 20 or so of them. All my computers where fine

 

[19psi]

Holland SA-1F
Thanks, I'll give these a try. They seem reasonably priced too.

I've heard of the loops mentioned from HAM guys, but many think it's a myth. Either way, it's free and can't hurt.

 

[FaT Air]

No myth. I cared for multiple commercial radio repeaters under 200 to 300 ft towers on buttes in western ND/ eastern Montana. Would have to service lightning damage on at least one every weak. After I put a loops in the RG jumper to the heliax the trips to these sites dropped to once every other month.
Put the coax loop between your ground block and your indoor equipment.
Loop presents higher impedance than the ground block to pulses.

 

[FTA4PA]

No myth. I cared for multiple commercial radio repeaters under 200 to 300 ft towers on buttes in western ND/ eastern Montana. Would have to service lightning damage on at least one every weak. After I put a loops in the RG jumper to the heliax the trips to these sites dropped to once every other month.
Put the coax loop between your ground block and your indoor equipment.
Loop presents higher impedance than the ground block to pulses.

Thanks for the tip! You do mean after the ground block, before it enters the house, like this?

Thanks!

 

[Titanium]

I agree, nothing for MythBusters to debunk! I place three or four 1 foot loops secured together with nylon ties in the crawl space. I do this for coax and control wires. Wouldn't matter if it was placed before or after the coax ground block.

I think satellite hobbyist could learn a lot about grounding/bonding noise and interference suppression from our amateur radio cousins!

 

[FaT Air]

IMHO, another piece of 'insurance' is a 'whole house protector' in the electrical panel.

 

[armadillo_115]

I agree, nothing for MythBusters to debunk! I place three or four 1 foot loops secured together with nylon ties in the crawl space. I do this for coax and control wires. Wouldn't matter if it was placed before or after the coax ground block.

I think satellite hobbyist could learn a lot about grounding/bonding noise and interference suppression from our amateur radio cousins!

Wrapping a grounded wire 8 or 10 times around the coax makes a RX choke that prevents transmissions from flowing back down the outside of the coax to the transmitter.Worked well on my old Jo-Gunn beam once I followed an old hams instructions.(Those old 12 tube amps were prone to feedback)

Not sure if it would help any for static or near-miss lightning on a dish...but it might help anyone who has TI problems.Any ham here who could comment? I'm blessed with no TI to date...so no way/need to test the theory.

Many CB'ers would disconnect the coax and place it into a large glass jar claiming that lightning wouldn't leave the jar. I never trusted that chit and always threw my cables out the window before a storm.Why invite it in to begin with?

I saw ball lightning enter our house once as a teen.'Fingers' of electricity emanating from it like it was searching for something.It came down the hall slowly and I pressed myself against the wall to avoid it.It found what it was looking for... the water heater and blew a hole in it.Would also watch light bulbs grow in intensity until they exploded.We lived close to the rail road line and had tons of lightning problems.Those long steel rails would light up like blue/white arc welding lights sometimes.
Had my sneaker soles melted and the bottom of my feet blackened from a near miss once as well.Was standing in a couple inches of water,trying to drive a crazy horse into the barn at the start of a hailstorm. The horse hit the ground out cold...but revived.I had irregular heart rhythm for about an hour but was too stupid to go to the E.R.

I have a healthy fear of lightning !

 

[soundman65]

I too had a lightning strike a few days ago. It took out my ku lnb and Openbox S9 receiver and tv antenna preamp. Strange thing is that my C band dish wasn't touched at all. My dishes are only about five feet from each other.

 

[Cham]

This is a bad time of year for lightning it seems. Bad storm went through here last night but we survived without any issues, just a few quick power outages.

Most electrical codes require all non-mains conductors to be bonded before entering a dwelling; this means to have your feedline running through a grounding block that is connected to your house electrical ground at the breaker box or direct from the ground rod or plate. This should be the first line of defence. If your installation is not to code there could be insurance issues if you were to make a lightning damage claim.
I think it might be better to have any RF chokes (wire coils etc) outside before the ground block... in an attempt to keep any (spark) potential outside rather than dissipating it inside your residence. No doubt RF chokes can help dissipate high amperage high frequency AC, but a direct hit will destroy things... no matter how good your grounding is.

To reiterate Armadillo's statement: "have a healthy fear of lightning!"

 

[19psi]

Ok...read through more codes and worked on my grounding today. I did not have a ground block at my house for the dish planted in the backyard. That's been corrected. I have a #8 ground running from that going to an 8' ground rod that my rooftop antenna also attaches to. That ground rod is bonded to my house's ground rod about 20' away with #6 copper.
I also realized my rooftop antenna was not properly grounded. When I installed it years ago, I ran #8 copper from the mast and the coax ground block to a single #8 going to the ground rod. I could almost swear the safety sheet that came with the Winegard did not mention anything about needing separate wires for the ground block and mast, but that's the way it is now. I see it's also code that every ground must have its own ground clamp.

I do have one concern that I can't seem to find an answer to. My twin antenna grounds go over my aluminum gutter and down along side the aluminum downspout.
Are there issues if the ground wires are attached to that downspout for aesthetic reasons? Most of what I've read said you can secure the wire to your house or bury it...but I'm wondering the aluminum would be an issue that can light up the side of the house in a direct strike?
Also, does anyone run an individual #10 or larger ground from their dish(s) (in yard) to their house ground. My coax has a separate external ground wire but of course it's nowhere near 10 AWG. Is it true that this 17 AWG messenger ground is approved by NEC?

Armadillo:
Loved the story, that had to be almost paranormal! My high school science teacher had the same thing happen to him when he was a kid...it slowly traveled past him throughout the house until it blew something up in the kitchen. It's been 30 years and that's one story I've not forgotten.

 

[armadillo_115]

I would call your local building inspector,19psi.My county building inspector was much stricter than anything I found online. Nice guy though,he explained the hows and whys to me on the phone.He even offered to come check it out unofficially ...but I was afraid he might see some violation to the building code elsewhere.

I wanted my butt covered.We lost our furniture company building to a waterstove fire a few years ago...and the insurance company was a PITA.

 

[goaliebob99]

I am another victom of lighting. We had some monsoon storms come through. I initally didnt realize it as only the ASC1 seemed to have taken the hit, until after I sent the email to Brian that the unit was dead, My daughers started to complain about thier TV not working. So far I have 3 TV's not working and 3 dead DirecTV boxes with a dead ASC1 controller. The HDMI port on my roku isnt working either. The roku isnt much of a loss. I am glad that I have the DirecTV premier protection plan as that covers the TV's!

I did have all of my equipment on surge protection but that didnt seem to do much. I'm going to be adding a few loops in as well to the wireing as well as investing in more surge protection as this happend overnight while we were sleeping.

 

[Elkview]

Will those whole house GFI's help?

 

[Bongu]

The whole house GFI devices will only protect you from a spike on the power lines. Most, but not all, have very low joule ratings and are useless. A near miss can travel to your devices through coax, phone lines, and even through the air gap that 'lektricity doesn't normally travel through.

Buy a quality supressors rated for the load you need, but beware the ratings. Some of these devices will take one hit and be done. I found blown MOVs in one with no other symptoms.