There were storms yesterday in Wilmington, North Carolina. The ionic concentration of the storms were so great it disrupted digital cable, phone service and high speed internet.
The last time this happened I left the wireless modem on without realizing it and it was struck by an ionic concentration that blew the circuitry out. It wasn't lightning. There was no flash, only a popping noise. I didn't know what it was at first and yes it was plugged into a power panel/surge protector both at the plug and the wall (redundancy to protect all the equipment against surges) to protect it, but, it wasn't from a power surge. It was from the ionic concentration in the atmosphere and it affected a surge between the wireless antenna. The surge protectors never tripped because it didn't come down the wires. When the new modem came I plugged it into the old wires to see if they were fried and they weren't, the new modem worked perfectly on the old wiring.
You don't have to have a visible electric arch between two antenna in order to short circuit it. The ionic concentration in the atmosphere caused a build up of electricity high enough between the antenna to overload the modem from the antenna and not the electric connections. I could not have come up with a more perfect experiment if I tried. PROOF. NO GUESSING. PROOF. These storms are highly ionic. Nothing like I've ever experienced here before and I've lived here since 1999, through Floyd and Dennis.
I have to shut everything down when these storms come along. It's brutal. I haven't tried starting the car yet during one of these storms, but, I bet the ignition systems are affected as well. This is no joke. I have the blown out modem to prove it.
