Xref: utzoo comp.dcom.modems:3910 sci.physics:8291
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!phri!roy
From: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems,sci.physics
Subject: TrailBlazer Plus vs. lightning
Message-ID: <3784@phri.UUCP>
Date: 27 May 89 19:02:45 GMT
Organization: Public Health Research Institute, NYC, NY
Lines: 29

[sci.physics isn't really right, but there isn't a sci.geo, or at least
not yet, so I figured sci.physics isn't too bad a place for this]

	This morning, I was sitting at home connected via my TrailBlazer
Plus.  It was raining a bit.  Suddenly I heard a soft <click>, like a
relay.  It sounded exactly like a modem hanging up the line.  Before I even
finished recognizing the noise, there was an amazingly bright lightning
flash (it must have been *very* close) almost immediately followed by about
the loudest *BOOM* of thunder I've ever heard, with ba-roo-oom-omm
grumblings lasting for a few seconds.  It set off a half dozen car alarms
on the block.

	It also zapped the ram in my 'blazer.  This is the newer style one
in the white plastic case.  Not only did it make it hang up the line, but
it cleared all the numbers stored in ram (ATN? showed all the stored
numbers to be blank).  It didn't bother the eeprom, just the ram.  The
blazer didn't crash completely; it still responded to commands and neither
the terminal I was using (a CIT-101e) nor a Mac Plus sitting 8 feet away
were bothered.

	My physics question about all this is, what was the click I heard?
I thought it was just the phone line relay, but my wife, in the next room,
claims to have heard it too (the relay is *far* too soft for that).  Does
up-close lightning make a >click< just before the *BA-ROOOM*?
-- 
Roy Smith, System Administrator
Public Health Research Institute
{allegra,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy -or- roy@phri.nyu.edu
"The connector is the network"