Nice thunderstorm last night.

Blister

Blister

Well-Known Member
Last night between midnight and 0100 I was awakened by some impressive thunder and lightning. Got up, turned on the TV when I couldn't go back to sleep. One final house rocking lightning strike and the TV made a loud pop with a bright white spark visible through the frame or speaker, don't know which. TV, and ABB cable box downstairs were instantly dead. Wireless router dead also. Call the homeowners insurance rep. this morning, and before I got my story out she advised me to check the cable connections outside. Said that ABB did not properly ground the splitter at her home and she recently lost 3 sets, game systems and several cable boxes after a close lightning strike, because they had not grounded the coax shield before it entered her home. Nice lady but did not think an insurance salesperson would be very knowledgeable about wiring and lightning protection.

Get home from work today and she is the Amazing Kreskin of cable tv. We had ABB replace our cable about 10 years ago because of poor signal. Tech said no problem your signal is weak. New cable run from the street box to the house and he added a splitter with a service added to the upstairs directly to a wireless router. Good signal, no problem with service, never thought to inspect his work.

Checked today, and he added a splitter hanging in the air, the old properly grounded coupling still attached to my block wall but not connected in any way to my incoming cable service. Insurance agent sounds like no problems getting reimbursed after our deductible, but I hate shopping.

Probably mostly my fault, upstairs tv's and cable on surge protectors, and all ok. I just added the downstairs tv last week and did not add any surge devices.
 
vraiblonde

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
Blister said:
I don't get any weather, amber, silver or any other alerts. I'd rather just wake up dead one morning. Unknown and spam callers are also always silenced. I don't care, I only have a work phone. ALL notifications and calls are silenced from 8 PM til 6 AM.
Click to expand...

I keep meaning to turn off my BayAlert because it goes off constantly. I'm going to do that right now....
 
LightRoasted

LightRoasted

If I may ...
For your consideration ...

Must be caused by all those charges particles and plasma coming form the sun interacting with our magnetosphere.
 
Blister

Blister

Well-Known Member
Surprisingly good response from Breezeline. Wife talked to the cable guys on our street Thursday afternoon and they said that there definitely was a lightning strike in the neighborhood. They had rewired some box on our street and told her that if we still don't have service to call and schedule an appointment. We didn't, and the office said that the earliest appointment would be next Tuesday.

Came home yesterday to a happy wife and better tv signal than before. She said that the 2 tech.'s showed up unexpectedly and had service back on inside of an hour. The outside connection has a new splitter that is properly grounded to the electrical service ground. She said they were both nice and polite. They were only mildly shook up when they met my resident copperhead, in the flowerbed.

Still lost 1 tv, and one wireless router. That is now between me, God, and my insurance company.

After 30+ years of experience dealing with various cable companies I was pleasantly surprised with this outcome. Evidently, still lots of lost connections in the area, but with the heat and lots of work to be done I was impressed with tech.'s on the street doing their jobs well.
 
spr1975wshs

spr1975wshs

Mostly settled in...
Ad Free Experience
Patron
Blister said:
they said that there definitely was a lightning strike in the neighborhood.
Click to expand...
When I had the pre-season AC tune-up done last month, capacitor on the AC unit was blown and a couple inches of the wiring off that was fried.
Tech said it looked light possible lightning power surge. Amazed, as we had one in Ohio, which fried electronics in the house.
Have everything on surge protectors.
 
Blister

Blister

Well-Known Member
spr1975wshs said:
When I had the pre-season AC tune-up done last month, capacitor on the AC unit was blown and a couple inches of the wiring off that was fried.
Tech said it looked light possible lightning power surge. Amazed, as we had one in Ohio, which fried electronics in the house.
Have everything on surge protectors.
Click to expand...
Pretty sure this was a direct hit on a component of the cable system. I saw and heard the lightning strike and the lights never even flickered.
 
Sneakers

Sneakers

Just sneakin' around....
I was servicing one of my generators today, and it needs a new gasket on the tank valve, so it's down. :ohwell:

Was going to gill a steak outside, but methinks now it's a cast iron sizzle on the stove.
 
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