Lightening and telephone stories.

[dsk]

Slightly on the side of the thread, but once the lightning stroke our line, several 100 yds from us, but: The "diy-NID" (NID's are not common in Norway) "evaporated" the "modern" telephone with dtmf was just trash, and the rotary 1934 model had the movable part of the ringing motor thrown off. 

I opened the old phone and put the parts back, twisted together the line ends, and when the fuses was replaced in the other end: it was OK.  The neighbors denied the possibility, the box on the pole is totally wrecked...  I had dial tone, and I could call out, and receive calls.

I have been told to keep away from the phone in such weather.

dsk

[FABphones]

We (the chimney) took a direct strike from lightening a few years back. The modern 'every day' phone and the ansaphone were thrown across the room in several pieces. Everything electrical was zapped, even stuff that was unplugged arc'd out. Everything electrical was no more. Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't been there.

[Key2871]

I got this idea, after a post asking should a telephone system be grounded. I looked briefly for this subject but didn't find anything. I have a few more, but I'll wait.

So to kick it off...
Back in the late 70's I was home alone at my parents house, perched high on a hill top. And a storm started brewing miles away I watched as it came over Mountain ranges, and then the lake. I sat in the front yard watching it progress as it headed towards the house, lighting flashes all over the place. Right before the worse part was directly over me, the phone rang, it had been dinging every once and a while, but I answered it, an ITT dial trimline set that I put in.
Anyway, I held it in my hand away from my face and yelled hello, my mom said are you alright? I said yes but quickly get to the point, because I don't want to be on the phone as we're  having a severe storm, crack went the sound of lightning outside. I said bye bye, and my mom asked if I wanted a sandwich for dinner. Yes fine I said hung up the phone, just in time. Suddenly the outside lit up a bright pink purple and BANG!! A strike extremely close to the house, the phone rang and I hid in the stairwell. A bolt had hit a tree in a field about a hundred feet away bark went flying like schratnel.
I later check everything outside, and found a crack in my circuit protector I had connected to the barn for phone.
I've never seen anything like it before. Thank god it was all well grounded.
BUT a phone in my neighbor's house was not working after that. They knew I worked on phones and came over to ask me to look at it. It was a cheap import set that was off hook all the time. I said unplug it, I called and the other phones worked fine. But that one phone was junk.

[Nick in Manitou]

In 1982 I was camping at Delaware's Cape Henlopen State Park (where the Delaware Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean) and went to use an outdoor pay phone.

There was a thunder storm several miles west of where I was that was pretty active with quite a bit of lightning.

As I went to put my quarter into the phone, a blue/white spark flashed between my quarter and the phone just as a flash in the sky reflected the light from a bolt of lightning somewhere a distance away.

Perhaps I was being foolish, but I went ahead and made the call to the woman who has been my wife now for a couple weeks over 36 years. We heard occasional crackling on the line as we spoke and assumed it was from more lightning.

Nick

(Nick in Manitou is now in Sausalito, California)

[jiimhoff]

We don't get much lightening right here (Wasilla AK) because the mountains, but I have a feeling if this thread goes long I'll be earth grounding the 308 after all

[Key2871]

Well, it's not a bad idea just to be on the safe side.

Another story: I had made an Intercom system for my brother, he wanted phone and house communication . I didn't have any circuit protection available, so I just used a UG rated cable from the house to the garage about 75 feet from the house. And I just used fuses in regular fuse holders.
I made a talk source, and a signal source. Toggle switches to go from telco to intercom. It worked fantastic, until one afternoon, a storm came up it was a very severe storm.
Lightening hit a very large pine tree about twenty feet from the back of the garage. Ran down the tree, tunneled to the back of the garage, around the corner to the front where the service for electrical and phone/ intercom. Then through the ground in the electrical system, went to the house taking out my power unit, and killed the fuses, but shorting the power unit as well. I went up the next day, the Power unit was hot from being shorted, everything else was fine. No phone damage, or anything in the shop or house. But the tree lost a huge branch, and a root that was closest to the garage litterly blew to peaces. And the tunnel that the lighting made was still visible.
Absolutely amazing, I have never seen anything like that.
I said to my brother, glad nobody was on the phone, or it could have turned out bad.

[Key2871]

Nick, I think you were very lucky you weren't zapped.
Even by a static charge of a bolt of Lighting. The ground potential was you, that's were the spark came in, but the charge wasn't sufficient to get you.

Having arching come from outlets, is a sure sign of a strike on the power line. Experienced that a few times, it's kind-of scary when it happens.

[paul-f]

Suddenly the outside lit up a bright pink purple and BANG!! A strike extremely close to the house, the phone rang and I hid in the stairwell. A bolt had hit a tree in a field about a hundred feet away bark went flying like schratnel.

I was raised with warnings about not using the phone during lightning storms, but didn't pay a lot of attention until we had a similar experience in the mid-1990s. During an unusually strong storm during the day, we happened to be in the kitchen looking out the window when a bolt hit a 40+ foot pine tree about 50 feet from the house. The flash lit up the inside of the kitchen and, as you said, pieces of wood flew in all directions. The bolt hit about half way down the trunk and literally vaporized about a 5 foot section. The top15 or so feet "jumped" about 10 feet to the right and fell straight down to the ground, then tilted and leaned against another tree. It all seemed to happen in slow motion. After the storm passed, we went out to examine the remains. It looked like someone spread cases of toothpicks and loads of sawdust around the standing trunk. The memories are still quite vivid.

After that, we got a cordless phone to use during inclement weather.

[twocvbloke]

Not a direct experience, but when I was working at the computer shop, a system came in for repair, totally dead, on opening it up, there was a strong burnt electronics smell, and looking at it, there was a burn mark on the chassis, and a small burnt hole through the PCI sound card, and a nasty burn mark on top of the modem (this was back when dialup was still very commonplace), given the day before we had some hefty lightning storms, it instantly hit that this poor computer must have taken a telephone line hit which grounded through the computer case to earth, taking out whatever was in its' way!! 

I did take pictures of it at the time, but they've gotten lost over the years sadly, and I was so desperate to buy the case off the owner just to have a lightning damaged computer case (replacing all the components inside, of course!), but their insurance wanted it for covering their claim sadly, so, it wasn't to be!! 

[Key2871]

One day, after going into work, opened up the building for the day, I noticed a very strong smell of cooked electronics.
I found the odor was strongest by the fax machine, the night before a strong storm passed through and after talking with a couple guys on the electric department I knew, they said a strike was reported in the trees near the service pole to the building. I told my boss who wanted to know what the odor was, I said I think it's the fax machine because that's where I narrowed it down to. So he said take it out back put it on a bench and open it up. I found two capacitors that had blown apart, I showed him and said looks like you need a new fax machine.. he wasn't happy about that, but I said hey it could have been worse, he asked me to check out the phone system. It was a comdial 308 and it was grounded to the electrical system. I can't say that that I'd what saved it, but the fax was directly connected to it, using a Viking ring something. Don't remember what it was called. But the rest of things were fine.

I have watched a bolt of lighting hit that same tree, up on the hill, and watched it wind around the tree, stripping bark off as it went, at the same time, it sounded like it was ripping the siding off of the house. Thankfully my dad had the good sense to have lightning rods installed when he was building it, because I think those took a lot over the years living up there. And that tree, died after being hit by so many strikes, several years later, the last was it's demise it blew it in half and the top half landed on the ground, the highest tree in the area, always attracted lightening..

I really think Mother Nature is very powerful, and lighting is nothing to take for granted.

Paul, cordless phones are fine, but beware of acoustic shock when on the phone, it can hurt you.
I'm never on any phone during a strong or severe storm.
Simply because I just don't want anything to happen..

[19and41]

I used to repair and maintain Microwave communication sites and we had lightning to strike a remote solar powered site.  it took out all the power storage equipment, save the batteries and a few components of the communications end.  I brought back the damaged equipment to see what could be salvaged.  One item was an orderwire rack that was used to call on an open line between stations in the system.  The stroke burned about a inch square out of its main board, beneath a diode bridge used for the power input.  I made up a sub board duplicating that portion of the circuit and piggybacked it on the board.  I applied power to it.  Then I switched it on.  it did nothing til I turned up the volume.  I sure didn't hear any orderwire traffic, I heard most of the AM bandspread across the volume control at a fixed volume.  I kept it as a conversation piece.

[Russ62]

A while back, a friend of mine acquired from a swap meet a 151AL desk stand that apparently had been struck by lightning. The outside looked normal, but the insulation was burnt off the wiring harness and the receiver and transmitter capsules were fused inside. Fortunately the little wood terminal strip that replaced the usual triangle shaped contacts on either side of the dial was undamaged. It was probably from a WW2 era refurb. it was obviously phone company made, looks like a miniature version of wood terminal strips inside older paystations. I then traded him out of it and replaced the wiring and capsules for a working addition to my collection.                 Russell

[AL_as_needed]

Not a phone story, but a lightning one for sure.
My parents had a vacation home in the Adirondacks we would use for the summer and it was furnished with less than current electronics. Being a summer place, the TV was mainly for the odd rainy day, so it was one of those very heavy tube sets that tried to look like a dresser by being built into a big wooden box.

Anyway... one fine day a very intense storm worked its way east and was funneled into the area by the surrounding mountains. Once it hit the humid air over the lake, all hell broke loose. Now I personally like thunder storms, but this was such that we were sitting on the floor of the hallway. Lightning struck a pole just up the road from the house and must have hit the coaxial cable for the TV. Now in bad storms we would unplug all major appliances out of fear of a strike, and the TV actually powered on for a few seconds despite being unplugged! While a scary event, the TV was unharmed and worked another dozen years after that.

[Key2871]

That is a testament to the old electronic devices of the day.
These days, nothing could stand up to that type of thing before the ic chips and everything else would scream for a split second before dying.
I always unplug electronic devices before we get a severe storm just as a precaution.

Ever seen lighting come out of the power outlets? Along with a loud snap noise.. Yup those are what kills your TV, stereo, or throw you across the room.

[dsk]

Once the lightning stroke our line, several 100 yds from us, but: The "diy-NID" (NID's are not common in Norway) "evaporated" the "modern" telephone with dtmf was just trash, and the rotary 1934 model had the movable part of the ringing motor thrown off. 

I opened the old phone and put the parts back, twisted together the line ends, and when the fuses was replaced in the other end: it was OK.  The neighbors denied the possibility, the box on the pole is totally wrecked...  I had dial tone, and I could call out, and receive calls.

I have been told to keep away from the phone in such weather.


Some years later the lightning stoke again, the mains this time. We were not there (luckily enough)
I guess the photos tells more than words, but the TV, radio, 12V cooler to the car etc witch was disconnected and several meters (≈ yds) was just not working anymore.

On the wall we had a handcrafted wool tapestry, it took fire, the ventilation melted, a chair was damaged, the plastic behind the wood melted, and everything was cold when we came there. 

What you see is a typical Norwegian installation made in the 1980-ies in a woodin house.  The fuses are porcelain elements, 3 phase 230V (Delta)
The wiring is a metal clad pvc insulated copper wiring, and the old style 2 prong outlets.  The grounding is there, but not used in the outlets. (The grounding itselves are limited due to the building is placed on bare mountain.) 
We are happy to still have the cabin 






dsk