Thread: Lightning strikes, RF and plasma TV's

This afternoon in Sydney we had a thunder storm and lightning strikes ( This is usual for Summer down here ).

I happened to notice that as soon as I saw a lightning flash, the picture on our plasma TV would either lock up or lose resolution.

We also have cable connected to it ... but I don't think it's that.

I have a suspicion that the RF given off by the lightning is playing up with the TV.

Has anyone ever heard of this happening ?

Steve

Ingress from electrical disturbances is very common in communications.

Lightning has several ways into your TV, it can strike powerlines and cause 'glitches' which upset the power supply for a few millisconds and therefore cause the voltages in the TV to 'jump' or spike, this upsets the delicate balance and bingo you get some anomaly.

The 'EM' pulse genreated can induce large voltages into any aerial which might be attached and 'swamp' the signal from the transmitter to cause white lines, streaks, dots to appear all over the picture for a very brief period, that is in old analogue tv's - the effects in Plasma TV's will be different.

If the lighning is really close (and this is rare), it can directly induce voltages into the circuits/wires etc, which may even destroy the TV.

THe most usual cause is the first one, the powerline strike where in the US it can affect (through the grid) electronic systems up to 800 miles away.