Lightning_Weather

These are a collection of pictures taken here in Roodekrans over the years. The television tower was built a few years after we moved in to our 'new house'. It has been the lightning rod for the area ever since. Most of the damage has been caused by induction from the enormous current in the strike. The network damage to the UTP equipment is usually caused by electrostatic charge conducted onto the cable in common-mode. The small hybrid electronic circuits on the hubs, switches and network cards, cannot withstand this voltage and usually fry in a fraction of second.

Friends and colleagues have suggested I go the fibre optic cable route. It will probably happen sometime this year, if I can afford it. As it happens the move to an exchange based answering service has proven very reliable. Previously the answering machines were junked during every summer. None of the imported types lasted more than a few months.

Modems over the years have joined the answering machines. These usually had no lightning protection to speak of and had to have locally made LPU's added on the phone line. At R35 each, this was not a problem. And as can be seen below, they did their job well. The protected modems survived many lightning seasons.