Whilst one of the best ways to protect your radio during a Thunderstorm is to disconnect the feeder from the Rig. But the first flash or roll of thunder you hear could mean that the damage is already done.
You could of course use a Lightning Suppressor, great for getting rid of static too. But the truth is a direct strike and it’ll fry your radio. You still come down to pulling the coax out.
OK, so how do you predict lightning. You can’t and yes, it can hit the same place twice too. The important thing is that you can detect lightning. Listen to 80m and you hear the cracks of noise as the discharges occur.
Now that’s all well and good, but that will not give you the distance away and direction. You can of course buy a Lightning detector, they start off for about £40 and can go up to many hundreds (click on the prices for more info), great for NFD use you find them listed at special meteorological sites. These units can give you distance and direction so you can plot there course towards you.
An interesting option however is the online lightning detector display supplied by people like NowCast.co.uk shown below.
The image below is freshly loaded from Nowcast, to refresh the image, simply refresh the page. This shows the latest Lightning strikes around the UK.
Real Time Lightning Alert for the UK, Courtesy of NowCast.co.uk.
Disclaimer. Please note this information is supplied for non-commercial use only. It is not intended as a resource to determine safety in anyway, please do not put life or equipment at risk from following this information or any derived conclusions drawn from it. Nowcast.co.uk or radioham.info cannot take any responsibility for any losses or damage in any way.
As ever there are always alternatives. Have a look at Blitzortung.org who offer more than just an overview.
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