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KKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERACK! (poof!)

ButtFuzz

Anti-BS Advocate ● WO0WOO ● Reverend Doctor
I Support WorldwideDX.com!
Aug 11, 2005
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Sunny Salem, VA
robco.ath.cx
The sound my Magnum 257 made whilst taking a lighting hit this morning.

Neat stuff. Both finals short-o-matic and more.
More, much, more than I bargained for!
I really didn't know these rigs were capable of drawing that much current :) !

Next episode:
In search of a new rig!
 

Any good torched burn marks inside the radio? If so, let's see some pics. Years ago in college I used to repair network and PC equipment that had taken lightning strikes through the network or power line. All kinds of good smoke would pour out. Keep in mind that this was in the day of XT's and AT's and those boards were realy big. A good lighning strike would melt all kinds of stuff together....if it didn't just turn to powder first.
 
Details, details.

No " WOW !!! " internal damage other than that good old ionized electronics smell.

This is (err, was) on of those new, blue ones. The finals are shorted. Haven't tested the driver.

Worthy of note, however is the way the solder heated up on the little "power take off" near the reverse-polarity-diode. It got so hot so fast that the solder looks like one of those magnetic moustaches from those little toys I had when I was a kid. You know the kind... there's a magnetized "pen" and you drag the steel "hair" about the dudes face and make him look funny... That's what the solder looked like in a few places.

I'm going to tear it down tonight and see If I can get it to at least turn on... otherwise perhaps some spare parts.

Oh, well.
 
Ooh, and just to clarify the obvious... it is NOT the reverse-polarity diode. no such luck for me. The lights wont light... no one's home... the car won't start.

"She's a good and fried!"
 
You're going to want to check the antenna and feed line too...though you probably already knew that.
 
You're going to want to check the antenna and feed line too...though you probably already knew that.

Yes, thanks for the suggestion. My droopy dipole and feeline from that are A-OK. The feed line to my vertical antenna is OK. The antenna itself seems to load up OK, and there's no change in SWR. The vertical is also DC grounded and is still that way.

In the past I had a big stick bite the dust in a similar incident. Something inside the thing came detached and when I'd key up on AM and modulate, I worked every appliance in the house!!! Thankfully, I don't believe this has happended to my IMAX.

Thanks again for the good words,

Rob
"ButtFuzz"
KG4ZPN, gettin on in...
 

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