Holy shit, I think lightning just hit my sat dish!!
 

I was in the home office room, saw a flash - through closed blinds! - and heard a HUGE bang pretty much instantly, which means the lighting is basically right over me. After some rather shaky "exclamations" I walked back into the family room and found the sat receiver complaining there's no signal...

Holy fuck, I am still shaking from that noise! And I was sitting at my desktop comp when it happened, no way I'm getting back on that thing while this storm is on! (I'm on my laptop now, wireless IP and battery only)

Check to see if there is a fire atleast

Glad your ok man!


And the good news is.......................if lighting ACTUALLY hit your satalite dish..........I don't think the reciever would be complaining about anything...............I think it would be just a bunch of smoke and sparks flying!:winkwink:

Hang in there and ride it out!!! :thumbsup

Yes and that is a good point as well!

:thumbsup

Wouldn't a sat setup usually have a lightning arrestor? Then again I don't think the installer ran a ground cable...

I guess it could be an electromagnetic pulse fucking up the LNB in the dish. I wonder if anything other delicate electronics have been fried. :Graucho

I find it SO fucking hilarious how people post on GFY before they do ANYTHING else! :1orglaugh

welll??? what really happened???

I didn't mean that lightning didn't fuck up your sat reception or signal. I just meant it didn't "hit" your dish as that would probably for sure start much bigger problems than just TV reception.

If it hit anywhere near or over the house it will fuck things up with your reception for sure.

So Im guessing you checked and there was no fire?

http://www.johnny-five.com/fanart/7.jpg johnny 5 alivvvvvvvvve! need input

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I've gotten to the point where I often unplug my pc (both power cord and dsl line) during an electrical storm. at least your pc wasn't damaged.

You must be in Melbourne. Was just out on the golf course, and it rained like ive never seen before.

Most dishes are not "grounded" like they are supposed to be becuase installers are lazy and pay for thier own materials most of the time. A ground is not going to help a close hit anyways.
It probably hit something else close by and blew out your LNB.
You are lucky it didnt travel up the cable and blow out all of your electronics.
Probably just replace the LNB and the connector on the cable and you will be fine.

The storm was pretty sudden, my power went out for a bit too.

they rely on the equipment being earthed thru the normal earthing system i.e the power point.
they arent going to spend a heap of money putting in cable and earth stake to replace what should already be there. granted most sat boxes dont have an earth pin , they are earthed via the equipment they are connected to, or should be. i wont go into the reasons why things are, or are not, attractive to lightning.
but static/capacitive effects are attractants, nothing will stop a close strike damaging stuff no matter how solid your earth cable is

I did a quick check to make sure nothing was smoking, and of course walked away from the desktop computer with various things such as a TV antenna and DSL line connected to it... but apart from that what could I do?

Anyways, looks like whatever happened to the sat receiver was only temporary. It came good about 15 minutes after the big bang.

spooky181: You're right, I'm in the northern subs of Melbourne. :) Quite a storm we had...

Sounds about right. The fact that you receiver is not smoking is a good sign. I would start by replacing the LNB at the dish as well as checking the cables, and hopefully you will be good to go. Should be less than a $50 repair.

Lucky you...... Sounds like a near miss and not direct hit since LNBs blow fairly easily even with good grounding and lightning protection.

Maybe there's no signal because of the severe thunderstorm overhead????

wow dude, things really happen

if it hit your dish I think it will be pretty evident just by looking at it

if it is just the LNB, just get one off ebay. Don't pay outragers prices from your supplier..