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Old 08-17-2012, 05:52 AM   #1
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If you're headed our way ... Internet problem!

We had a bad storm in Santa Fe yesterday evening, but it was evidently even worse in Angel Fire: The wifi system was struck by lightning. From Maria's report, parts of it were blown apart, burned pieces landing on the other side of her office area.

Pretty obvious that the park is without Internet. I'm going up later today to assess the damage: Expecting the worst, but hoping for the best. At worst, I'd suspect about a week to order and install all of the fried equipment. At best, just a couple of hours of work with older spare parts we have in boxes.

Oh, and Santa Fe was exciting, too! A large electric line passing through a tree just behind the Airstream moved about. Suddenly, I heard very loud electrical humming and saw huge sparking. The neighboring rigs all lost power (and may have lost some equipment). The electric company showed up late last night and got the lines repaired.


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Old 08-17-2012, 06:54 AM   #2
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Please post pictures of the destroyed wifi parts!
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Old 08-17-2012, 07:07 AM   #3
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Sounds like the Tempest scene out of King Lear, except with electronics. Blow ye winds and hurricanos! Glad no people or critters got fried. Ditto on pics.
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Old 08-17-2012, 07:37 AM   #4
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Old 08-17-2012, 07:42 AM   #5
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Wow! Sorry to hear about it. Glad no one was hurt.
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Old 08-17-2012, 09:01 AM   #6
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When I get up there later today, I'll assess the damage. Of course, I'm hoping just for simple blown-out power supplies (got a whole box full of extras), but it doesn't sound that simple from Maria's description.

Of course, there's the ultimate catch 22: The wifi is dead, so can't get online. And I order all the parts online. Maybe have to make a list and wait until I'm back in Santa Fe on Sunday to order parts, as needed.


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Old 08-17-2012, 09:22 AM   #7
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Sorry to hear about the problem. That must have been a traumatic event at the park last night. I think there are a couple of WIFI hot spots in town. The library should have one and I believe that Angle Fired Pizza is another.
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Old 08-17-2012, 09:29 AM   #8
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Yes, there are a couple of other hotspots in town that people can use (including me if I need to order parts right away). A couple of the realtors have them, too. Unsecured. Duh. How about doing a property transaction at those places!

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Old 08-17-2012, 09:38 AM   #9
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Excellent point, send me your Credit card info and I'll help you out
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Old 08-17-2012, 09:46 AM   #10
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Sitting here waiting until I can leave (usually around 10:30), I've been piecing together what Maria was talking about last night on the phone. She kept asking me about a green board up on the large shelf where the wifi equipment is kept. Green board, green board. I kept on telling her that there wasn't a green board up there. Then she explained that the green board was made of plastic; it got burned and wound up on her keyboard across the room. I wrote it off to confusion and changed the subject.

And it finally dawned on me a few minutes ago. The board was green, but it wasn't a board made of wood. (Like I explained, there were no boards up there, green or otherwise, plastic or wood.) It was a green circuit board, burned and blasted out of one of the pieces of equipment up there.

In hindsight, I'm glad that I spent the time on the phone last night talking her through turning everything off and unplugging all of it from the wall.


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Old 08-17-2012, 03:12 PM   #11
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Sorry to hear about this, Lynn...and you're right, best to get it all disconnected from power sources before something worse happens... Good luck with getting it up and running again before the natives get restless! You know how crazy folks get when they can't get online! (Oh wait...that's maybe just me.)
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Old 08-17-2012, 03:41 PM   #12
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Bummer! We were in SF last year when a bad thunderstorm came through at the same campground. TV reception went loony and power was fluctuating. I turned off the TV and unplugged the laptop. That's when I decided to get a surge protector for the trailer rather than rely on cheap individual ones for each receptacle.

I hope it is simple and you have a closet full of circuit boards. At least you can fix this yourself. A lot of campground owners have no idea what to do with wifi.

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Old 08-18-2012, 06:37 PM   #13
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Oh, it was pretty destructive! Final tally:

All but one of the power supplies dead
DSL modem dead
Router dead
Power injection unit for booster dead
Two-watt booster dead
UPS dead

The most major loss was the booster. Those things don't come cheap. Amazingly, the antenna itself survived, albeit with some war scars.

I did find out that the strike was right onto the main antenna itself. When I arrived from Santa Fe, I found a cap-like thing in the driveway. Thought maybe some RV had lost it, maybe a cap on a strut for an awning or somesuch. When I took the antenna down this morning, I discovered that the cap was blown off. That's what I'd picked up in the driveway yesterday about 20 feet away.

The green board that I mentioned earlier was a power supply. It had taken a hard hit, and the plastic housing had blown apart, exposing the blackened innards. The pieces of the housing were what Maria found across the room on her computer keyboard.

Anyway, I've got it all replaced now and a whole pile of equipment to throw away is still waiting in the office.


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Old 08-18-2012, 07:30 PM   #14
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It may sound stupid, but was the wi-fi pole installed with a lightning-to-ground arrestor, or is all that moot?
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Old 08-18-2012, 09:57 PM   #15
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Nope, it wasn't, but I had intentionally installed the antenna so that it did not exceed the height of the building it's attached to. Just our sorry luck that the lightning hit it instead of, e.g., the metal chimney for the wood stove, which sticks up a good deal higher.


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Old 08-19-2012, 12:18 PM   #16
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You just can't trust lightning. Perhaps a lightning arrester would be a good idea since lightning does strike twice.

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