OT cell phone antenna struck by lightning
 

not necessarily metalworking related. here in my small town they put up
some cell antennas about 2 or 3 years ago. we had a big thunderstorm a
couple weeks ago. one of the antennas got zapped. sorry to say i think it
looks pretty funny. bzzzapp!

http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/cellantenna2.jpg

OT cell phone antenna struck by lightning
 

On Jun 27, 7:04*am, "William Wixon" wrote:
not necessarily metalworking related. *here in my small town they put up
some cell antennas about 2 or 3 years ago. we had a big thunderstorm a
couple weeks ago. *one of the antennas got zapped. *sorry to say i think it
looks pretty funny. *bzzzapp!

http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/cellantenna2.jpg

Ha! Peeled the radome like a bananna!


Dave

OT cell phone antenna struck by lightning
 

On Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:15:07 -0700 (PDT), XR650L_Dave
wrote:

On Jun 27, 7:04*am, "William Wixon" wrote:
not necessarily metalworking related. *here in my small town they put up
some cell antennas about 2 or 3 years ago. we had a big thunderstorm a
couple weeks ago. *one of the antennas got zapped. *sorry to say i think it
looks pretty funny. *bzzzapp!

http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/cellantenna2.jpg

Ha! Peeled the radome like a bananna!

Probably didn't do the waveguide and diplexer and transmitters and
receivers any favors either...

That's the time you just drop a dumpster at the door of the repeater
shack and shovel it all out to start fresh. Certain bits may have
survived unscathed, but it'll take way too long to find them and
certify that each and every function still works... Let the factory
service depot do that.

-- Bruce --

OT cell phone antenna struck by lightning
 

"Bruce L. Bergman" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:15:07 -0700 (PDT), XR650L_Dave
wrote:

On Jun 27, 7:04 am, "William Wixon" wrote:
not necessarily metalworking related. here in my small town they put up
some cell antennas about 2 or 3 years ago. we had a big thunderstorm a
couple weeks ago. one of the antennas got zapped. sorry to say i think
it
looks pretty funny. bzzzapp!

http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/cellantenna2.jpg

Ha! Peeled the radome like a bananna!

Probably didn't do the waveguide and diplexer and transmitters and
receivers any favors either...

That's the time you just drop a dumpster at the door of the repeater
shack and shovel it all out to start fresh. Certain bits may have
survived unscathed, but it'll take way too long to find them and
certify that each and every function still works... Let the factory
service depot do that.

-- Bruce --

that day i was visiting the microhydro plant that's here in my little town,
it was the operator who pointed out to me the antenna got hit (he said "it
peeled it like a banana" lol), he said that lightning strike affected his
equipment too, and he's like 500 feet away from that water tower.

b.w.

OT cell phone antenna struck by lightning
 

In article ,
"William Wixon" wrote:



that day i was visiting the microhydro plant that's here in my little town,
it was the operator who pointed out to me the antenna got hit (he said "it
peeled it like a banana" lol), he said that lightning strike affected his
equipment too, and he's like 500 feet away from that water tower.

b.w.

Made it look like a small CB ground plane.

OT cell phone antenna struck by lightning
 

On Sun, 28 Jun 2009 08:40:20 -0700, Bruce L. Bergman
wrote:

snip
Probably didn't do the waveguide and diplexer and transmitters and
receivers any favors either...

That's the time you just drop a dumpster at the door of the repeater
shack and shovel it all out to start fresh. Certain bits may have
survived unscathed, but it'll take way too long to find them and
certify that each and every function still works... Let the factory
service depot do that.

That was my old line of work, lightning damage was hard to
guess. Looking at the structure though, a water tower, I
wouldn't be surprised if the antenna was the worst of it.
They (antenna) are normally a DC connection to ground. That
absorbs a bunch of energy in itself. Fiberglass antennas
perform well RF wise but don't take lightning hits well.

Different tower sites had different tendencies. Some rarely
received lightning damage even though you knew they were hit
regularly. Others seemed to get beat-up every time a dark
cloud floated by. If the site was hardened, built to R56
standards damage was always pretty limited. I doubt if there
are too many cell sites anymore that aren't built to that
spec in lightning prone areas (shrug).

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email

OT cell phone antenna struck by lightning
 

"Leon Fisk" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 28 Jun 2009 08:40:20 -0700, Bruce L. Bergman
wrote:

snip
Probably didn't do the waveguide and diplexer and transmitters and
receivers any favors either...

That's the time you just drop a dumpster at the door of the repeater
shack and shovel it all out to start fresh. Certain bits may have
survived unscathed, but it'll take way too long to find them and
certify that each and every function still works... Let the factory
service depot do that.

That was my old line of work, lightning damage was hard to
guess. Looking at the structure though, a water tower, I
wouldn't be surprised if the antenna was the worst of it.
They (antenna) are normally a DC connection to ground. That
absorbs a bunch of energy in itself. Fiberglass antennas
perform well RF wise but don't take lightning hits well.

Different tower sites had different tendencies. Some rarely
received lightning damage even though you knew they were hit
regularly. Others seemed to get beat-up every time a dark
cloud floated by. If the site was hardened, built to R56
standards damage was always pretty limited. I doubt if there
are too many cell sites anymore that aren't built to that
spec in lightning prone areas (shrug).

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email


dang. i was hoping to go rooting through their dumpster, see if i could get
some copper scrap. :(

a couple weeks ago we had a major local telephone outage here, surprisingly
lasted several hours, that's unusual. when copper was (WAY) up there was a
band of bandits who were cutting down couple-hundred-feet sections of
telephone cables in towns around here. happened at least 3 times, maybe 4,
can't remember. this incident that happened to my town was when the price
of scrap copper was down. they cut a couple hundred feet of, what the
telephone guy called (i went there and was being nosy, talking to the
telephone repair lineman guy) "400 and 300 pair" cables, the ones i saw
lying next to the road were cut into like 20, 30 foot lengths, maybe about
an inch and a half/two inches in diameter. this time they ALMOST got
caught, they left the cable and one of their ladders. the cut sections of
cable laid there next to the road for a few DAYS, i was sorely tempted to
load it into my truck but i figured they must've had some infrared spotting
cameras pointed at it or something.

b.w.

OT cell phone antenna struck by lightning
 

"William Wixon" wrote:

not necessarily metalworking related. here in my small town they put up
some cell antennas about 2 or 3 years ago. we had a big thunderstorm a
couple weeks ago. one of the antennas got zapped. sorry to say i think it
looks pretty funny. bzzzapp!

http://www.frontiernet.net/~wwixon/cellantenna2.jpg


The two remaining antennas just don't look right. Usually the antennas are set to be
directional so the cells are pie shaped. From the ground it looks like a open box around
the radiator.

Wes

OT cell phone antenna struck by lightning
 

On Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:21:34 -0500, "William Wixon"
wrote:

"Leon Fisk" wrote in message
.. .

snip
Different tower sites had different tendencies. Some rarely
received lightning damage even though you knew they were hit
regularly. Others seemed to get beat-up every time a dark
cloud floated by. If the site was hardened, built to R56
standards damage was always pretty limited. I doubt if there
are too many cell sites anymore that aren't built to that
spec in lightning prone areas (shrug).

snip
dang. i was hoping to go rooting through their dumpster, see if i could get
some copper scrap. :(

Depending on the technician, company policy... they might
scrap all the heliax (coax) cable and connectors too. A lot
of times we knew the antenna was bad but couldn't tell if
the line was okay or not. It wasn't worth the risk of having
to call the tower crew back again if we guessed wrong. So
both the antenna and line would get replaced. Sometimes I
would climb up to the antenna, disconnect it and stick a
dummy load on. Another tech would then check it out from the
bottom. But that tied up two techs and you still couldn't be
100 percent certain. Sometimes test equipment tells fibs :)

A lot of techs won't fool around changing those expensive
connectors either. Either they don't want to spend the time
or can't figure out how to do it.

Can't hurt to ask though if you see them working on it.
Someone has to dispose of the stuff. Recycle prices took a
big dive. Might take a week or two for the crew to show up.
May have to order an antenna, heliax, misc and schedule the
tower crew. We used to keep a few of the more common
antennas on hand, doubt if they do anymore...

snip
when copper was (WAY) up there was a
band of bandits who were cutting down couple-hundred-feet sections of
telephone cables in towns around here. happened at least 3 times, maybe 4,
can't remember.
snip

That would **** me off royally if I had to go out and fix
it. Drives me nutty to see someone take expensive stuff and
trash it just to get the scrap value, UGH!

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email

OT cell phone antenna struck by lightning
 

On Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:36:00 -0400, Wes
wrote:

snip
The two remaining antennas just don't look right. Usually the antennas are set to be
directional so the cells are pie shaped. From the ground it looks like a open box around
the radiator.

Those look like standard omni directional fiberglass
antennas. What they use depends on the location and what
they are trying to cover. I would have to see a model number
to know what freq band they are in. Might not have anything
to do with cellular stuff. Could easy be public safety, ham,
business...

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email

OT cell phone antenna struck by lightning
 

"Leon Fisk" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:21:34 -0500, "William Wixon"
wrote:


Depending on the technician, company policy... they might
scrap all the heliax (coax) cable and connectors too. A lot
of times we knew the antenna was bad but couldn't tell if
the line was okay or not. It wasn't worth the risk of having
to call the tower crew back again if we guessed wrong. So
both the antenna and line would get replaced. Sometimes I
would climb up to the antenna, disconnect it and stick a
dummy load on. Another tech would then check it out from the
bottom. But that tied up two techs and you still couldn't be
100 percent certain. Sometimes test equipment tells fibs :)

A lot of techs won't fool around changing those expensive
connectors either. Either they don't want to spend the time
or can't figure out how to do it.

Can't hurt to ask though if you see them working on it.
Someone has to dispose of the stuff. Recycle prices took a
big dive. Might take a week or two for the crew to show up.
May have to order an antenna, heliax, misc and schedule the
tower crew. We used to keep a few of the more common
antennas on hand, doubt if they do anymore...


thanks, i'm going to patrol for the eventual dumpster, see if i can catch
the techs while they're there.



snip
when copper was (WAY) up there was a
band of bandits who were cutting down couple-hundred-feet sections of
telephone cables in towns around here. happened at least 3 times, maybe
4,
can't remember.
snip

That would **** me off royally if I had to go out and fix
it. Drives me nutty to see someone take expensive stuff and
trash it just to get the scrap value, UGH!

--
Leon Fisk



yeah, really. 20 or so years ago when i lived in nyc someone got up into
the old (at that time abandoned for many years) new york city police
headquarters http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/p...um/4632658.jpg
and stripped parts of the ornate copper dome, it was sickening. the dome
probably cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to build and tens of
thousands of dollars to repair (or maybe vice versa) and the guy probably
got a couple hundred bucks for the copper. that was the most outrageous
example i've ever encountered. good thing the statue of liberty is on an
island.
there were guys taking the aluminum guard rails off bridges and overpasses
around here (new york state) which is outrageous, sickening, expensive to
replace but the copper dome was utterly sickening.
i'm not a really good scrap picker upper guy, more often than not i try to
fix the thing, or find someone who can use it. if i can't find someone who
wants it or fix it very often it breaks my heart to throw a potentially
useful item into the scrap man's dumpster.

b.w.