This week started with a literal BANG! Lightning again struck my house here in Frisco, Texas. This is the second time. First time was Monday June 29, 2009. A little over 11 years ago. Search “lightning” (upper right corner) on this blog for more information. (Yes, this blog is much older than ten years.) This one was on Sunday morning August 30, 2020. About O500. One hell of a wakeup for a Sunday morning. (Words carefully...
Continue reading...fire
Internet Outage
We experienced a two (plus) hour outage of our internet yesterday. Almost all our external communication is delivered by that system. The cable television, home phone line and of course our Internet data feeds are dependent on that connection. Its importance is second only to our electrical power feed. Our home is 100 percent electrical energy dependent. The immediate effect was how quite everything in the house had become. The power was on but only...
Continue reading...Smoke and Mirrors
Here is the evidence that lightning will go where ever it chooses. It started at the electrical outlet and finished up in the plumbing. The aluminum (sorry not silver) in the mirror provided a low impedance (resistance) path to ground. The first picture is of course simulated but shows what happened. The second shows where the coating vaporized off the cover plate in line with the neutral wire screw head. There were similar spots at...
Continue reading...Number Please?
This is the USB modem I purchased about 5 months before the lightning strike. It was plugged into a rear USB port and had the phone line connected. All I use it for is an occasional FAX as phone modems are so obsolete, they are not installed in computers any longer. It was still hot to the touch hours after the strike. The circled areas are the burned components . The component board sets on...
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