Lightning blows out circuits

Press, 27 November 1982, Page 3

Lightning blows out circuits

Nelson reporter A lightning strike which blew all fuses for the microwave telephone • system on Mount Murchison knocked; out some 200 toll circuits to\ the West Coast yesterday afternoon. The lightning hit a 30m tower on the summit of the mountain about 3.10 p.m.. Incorporated in the tower are Post Office micro-wave dishes and television equipment. All were affected. Fortunately, engineering personnel of the Broadcasting Corporation were working at the site and replaced the fuses. However, for a little more than an hour the West Coast was almost totally cut off by telephone. Mr Stuart Smith, a Post Office supervising engineer at Nelson, said last evening that until the fuses were ‘renewed the department was able to use one or two of the Railways land lines strung along the railway routes. Some of the poles for these had been brought down earlier but they were replaced in time for the lines to be of use.

' Had the broadcasting men not been on Mount Murchison repairs would not have been made for about four hours, he said. Television • transmitting equipment was also affected by the lightning strike, as was the tower link to the equipment. However, a stand-by generator was started and all equipment was functioning “nearly as normal” last evening, said a Nelson broadcasting engineer, Mr Laurence Merrick.