First the earth moved for us on 8th August 2018! An earthquake, measuring 3.2 on the Richter scale shook Adelaide and the hills at about 8.30 pm. The prelude to the earthquake was about 50 mm of rain over the day before.

On Friday night I attended the AREG (Amateur Radio Experimenters’ Group) meeting in a sea-side suburb not far from the airport. We had a wonderful presentation from a Bureau of Meterology official (about to become an amateur) on how the BOM can assist amateurs with matters to do with the ionosphere. It was a sunny, cloudless afternoon, when I began my drive to the meeting, but the weather bureau had issued warnings for late Friday evening and Saturday. When I left the meeting it was raining and once I started to drive up the hill on the South-eastern Freeway the rain was really heavy. I thought we were in for a typical wet and windy night. There was no sign of any electrical activity. That was to come as I was to find out on Saturday morning.

We were struck by lightning on Saturday morning at about 4.20 am. I made my way to the smallest room in the house and switched on the light. Nothing happened! At about 07:30 I checked our inverter (we are off the grid) and it was not inverting. I ran through the start-up sequence and it fired up. I breathed a sigh of relief. This is the third or fourth time in 15 years of living at Scott Creek that this has happened.

But back to the storm.

The storm was overhead. The gap between the thunder and the flash was milliseconds!  I made my way back to bed and had just settled when we both heard what sounded like a whip crack. I wondered what had been hit and found out soon enough. Our modem-router was dead. It is likely that the telephone line/ lines were hit and we took a power surge.

I felt like playing Beethoven’s sixth symphony, The Pastoral, where when the storm has passed local shepherds sing and have thankful feelings.

I dislike electrical storms. Thankfully all antennas were disconnected and my Nally tower is appropriately grounded.