Hi Eric.

That's a good question.  Am I to assume that the question is being posed
for both blindness and hearing impairment?

Two thoughts come to mind right off.  They are not an ultimate answer to
your question, but may reduce the chances of equipment damage.  First, I
generally don't have my antennas connected when I am not using the
equipment.  Storms can easily sneak up while I am away from the house,
especially during the workday.  Second, I will regard the forecast of
thunderstorm activity as reason enough to disconnect.

These are the only things that I have to offer at the moment.  Most of my
other methods of keeping tabs on the weather probably won't work in this
scenario--i.e. listening for thunder (by the time someone could feel the
concussion from the thunder, they probably should be considering what
features they want on the next HF rig!), and the other technique that I use
is to use an AM radio with a fairly good directional ferrite rod to listen
for lightning crashes from approaching storms.  Unfortunately, my best AM
receiver succumbed to one of those really close ligghting crashes and
burned out the RF amplifier.  That was my GE Super Radio 2, which I miss
very much.

Some of the Alpha Delta lightning arrestors might be a good
investment.  They won't absorb a direct hit, but they can prevent your
equipment from being damaged by a near miss.

Hope that this helps.  Maybe someone who is enterprising could design a
tactile lightning indicator that would produce a vibration from the energy
coupled into a long wire antenna.  I saw an article where someone built a
lightning detector that was essentially a large piece of wire, a neon bulb
and a ground connection.  If we could convert the energy that is being
passed to ground into something that vibrates, and isolate it well enough
to keep the person feeling of it from getting knocked on his butt, that
might do the trick.

73, de Lou K2LKK


At 06:21 PM 4/12/2005 -0700, you wrote:
>Hi all, I have an interesting question for the group:
>         If you can't see streaks of lightening, how do you know when it is
>necessary to disconnect your antenna?  Sometimes, you can hear the thunder
>and you would disconnect the antenna when you hear it.  However, if there is
>a lightening strike and you don't hear anything, how do you know when your
>antenna should be disconnected?  Thanks in advance.
>
>Eric





Louis Kim Kline
A.R.S. K2LKK
Home e-mail:  [log in to unmask]
Work e-mail:  [log in to unmask]
Work Telephone:  (585) 697-5753