I’m back on line. Monday morning about 4:20 am our house was struck by lightning. We have a disused TV antenna on a 30 foot mast just out side the bedroom window. The wire is still in place for the antenna hook up as well as a rotator device wire. I was awake at the time, my impression was of a blinding flash. I don’t think my brain registered the thunder until it was almost gone.

Damage to the house was minimal. The cable / internet / phone box died. One TV doesn’t work and a few breakers where tripped. The computer would not recognize the roadrunner when the cable guy hooked things up. He plugged the cable in to the UBS port and it works fine now (he mumbled something about the NIK card being damaged but I have no clue). Also our water turned black with an iron corrosion taste. I suspect it came in the cable wire and grounde3d through the well casing. The water cleared up after a few days and the cable company replaced there box on Friday.

So, now I have some reading to catch up on from this site and another I frequent. I think I will lay off some of the vices for a while.

I am glad to hear you and the family is ok.

I have been hit 2 times here with lightning actually it hit the power lines and followed them to my house no strike on the house, first time I lost the computer two TV's VCR two phones and answering machine, the 2nd time I only lost one TV and DVD player now everything expensive has them surge protectors installed so I don't lose any more expensive electronics equipment.

Water never seem to be affected, no breaker trips.

Well that stinks. Good thing it was not like the oil refinery was last night.

The Network Interface Card (NIC) most likely went poof as well. Easy to swap out. If your connected with the USB make sure your running a software firewall.

We've been hit a couple times as well. Mostly near strikes that bled into the house. First time it took out our garage opener (My side of course), stereo, answering machine, and so forth. The stereo's microprocessor was toast. But the amps still worked. I frankenstein it into being a kick ass sub woofer amp that lasted for years.

The second time the wife saw ball lightning. A blue corona embellished the cordless phone base. The phone was toast. But the large screen TV it was sitting on and the stereo electronics were fine.

Lee disconnect the wire from entering your house. Get a grounding rod and ground that wire coming from the top of the tower. It can stilll bleed in like we had here. But, hopefully it won't be the entire strike passing through your equipment.

Your dead TV may have blown an internal fuse.

I wish I had a tower for my Ham Radio antennas.