Cable transient or something? This is bizarre.

[W1GUH]

Wonder what happened last night. Was sitting here with the cable on & surfing the 'net, when there was what sounded like a gunshot down under the tv and behind something. Made a flash of light.

Total WTF!!! The lights went out (I think) momentarily, or maybe just the TV. Happened so fast -- hard to know. Before I could even think almost everything came back and was perfectly normal. Everything but the cable -- had a dark screen for a while.

So I got up to look for maybe a wall wart that failed or at least something that looked fried and didn't see anything out of the oridnary, and today, the cable is fine. Everything's fine.

WTF? That "gunshot" or "explosion" was just plain scary, and now, everythings been fixed. About all I can think of is that somebody fu'd and somehow got HV on the cable shield? And that blew a CONED breaker somewhere that got reset quickly? And that blew some line amp somewhere that got fixed, too?

Nothing on the news or the TW website. Probably should call them later.

[KC2UGV]

Sounds crazy, but was it a tube TV? If so, maybe a plasma discharge?

[W1GUH]

What's a tube TV?

[W3WN]

What's a tube TV?It's an older set with all these glass thingies in the back that get warm and glow in the dark. I think they used to call them "thermionic valves."

[K7SGJ]

The cable company was trying to disable all the pirated units and sent a bullet down the cable. A .44 cal

You don't, by chance, live next to the redneck in the other thread that shot up his kids LT, do you?

[W3WN]

The cable company was trying to disable all the pirated units and sent a bullet down the cable. A .44 cal

You don't, by chance, live next to the redneck in the other thread that shot up his kids LT, do you?When we still had DirecTV, about once or twice a month our receivers would reset. Then it got to be more often, and then more often, so I finally called them up and kvetched.

Support assured me that they don't send out "bullets" & never did. [No, I didn't believe her then, and I don't now] But she'd contact the techs for me and have someone give me a call, a call which never came.

Funny how the problem stopped right after that call, though.

[W1GUH]

The cable company was trying to disable all the pirated units and sent a bullet down the cable. A .44 cal

You don't, by chance, live next to the redneck in the other thread that shot up his kids LT, do you?

I DID wonder it it was an errant shot from the street, but if it was, it achieved an extra dimension & came through the wall or window without damage!

Will call Time-Warner later to see if they know anything.

Through it all, RR internet stayed solid. I was reading an article about OWS at the super-PAC convention at the time. Maybe a warning about that?

Looked more closely at all the wall warts and stuff down by where the flash and "boom" were...still found nothing. There's a TV/RR splitter there...but it shows no signs of anything. Strange -- a spark as loud and bright as that one MUST have left some evidence?

Go figure!

[KG4CGC]

Ever hear code over the cable? On the TV, on the computer. Sounds like an ID transmission.
Heard it at a friend's house several years ago the first time. Said it had been happening often.
Heard it here last year av few times. Traced it down to the cellphone.

[ki4itv]

The only time I hear code on the Tv anymore is during one of those "let us market your invention" commercials late at night. Gets my attention every time...

Think they're marketing to hams?

[W1GUH]

Talking to TW right now....they have no info...I'm rebooting now. Re-boot brought the cable back just fine.

BTW....gave bad information before....cable wasn't OK this morning; I'd switched over to On-the-air TV!

If my cable hadn't gone out as evidence of something I"d think I dreamt it all!


Was there come kind of EMP from the sun last night? Seems like just the thing it would cause -- large potential where it shouldn't be.

And, maybe most perplexing of all -- there's lots of hi-tech stuff in that area and none of it was affected in any way.

What the hell was that?

[ki4itv]

Most of the action from SOL is on the farside and should be rolling around after the weekend if the disturbance survives

[HUGH]

5363

[W1GUH]

Most of the action from SOL is on the farside and should be rolling around after the weekend if the disturbance survives

Guess that rules that out. Guess I'll have to take a very close look at everything. Seems that a spark of that magnitude would leave something behind. Or am I a candidate for SHC? Yikes!

[n2ize]

What kind of Tv is it. Sounds like some kind of fault.. a short or electrical arc over. Did any neighbors notice a problem ? If not then probably your set.

[W1GUH]

Wasn't in the TV! Did I say that? NO. It was under the TV. Cheesh!

[n2ize]

Wasn't in the TV! Did I say that? NO. It was under the TV. Cheesh!

How far under ? Right below the chassis ? Near the floor ? Very often these flash arcs takke place so quickly that the brain has very little time to register their exact point of origin. Probably a power cord has break a some vibration caused a momentary short. It happens. If it was a high voltage electrical cable from the street that TV set would be fried and your neighbors would have had toasted equipment, fires, etc. If it had anything to do with a high voltage primary cable believe me, you'd know it for sure. Your electrical system would be gone.

[W1GUH]

How far under ? Right below the chassis ? Near the floor ? Very often these flash arcs takke place so quickly that the brain has very little time to register their exact point of origin. Probably a power cord has break a some vibration caused a momentary short. It happens. If it was a high voltage electrical cable from the street that TV set would be fried and your neighbors would have had toasted equipment, fires, etc. If it had anything to do with a high voltage primary cable believe me, you'd know it for sure. Your electrical system would be gone.

About as useful as tits on a man.

[KG4CGC]

About as useful as tits on a man.
Or calling the GoM, the Gulf of America.

[ki4itv]

I'm starting to lean toward Ball lightening, Paul.
or moldy stash?
;)

[kb2vxa]

I think I found your problem. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEJi-Oa5cSo

[n2ize]

About as useful as tits on a man.

Well, unless you can provide some detail as to exactly what flashed I would have to say it was a simple momentary short or power interruption. It was so breif that you could not accurately tell where it came from. Believe me, if it were a high voltage ConEd cable you're TV would have gone up in smoke. My guess is that you suffered a momentary power interruption and the sudden abrupt off/on flash appeared as a spark. In realty there was no spark. We get them around here from time to time. They can be somewhat startling.

Another possibility might be a localized lightning strike. This very mild winter can create some isolated thunderstorms of conditions that can produce a sudden but intense discharge of lightening.

[W1GUH]

Yea, but you're only guessing. My guess, which is based on what I observed, is as good as yours. And you didn't even read my observations carefully.

Ho-hum.

[n2ize]

Yea, but you're only guessing. My guess, which is based on what I observed, is as good as yours. And you didn't even read my observations carefully.

Ho-hum.

Well we can rule out a HV cable. If a HV primary somehow crossed over your cable TV your TV and cable modem would be burned to a crisp and you would likely have had the FDNY at your location. Plus all your neighbors would have had problems and the power to your building would have been pulled for a while. Besides, I thought you live in Manhattan where all that stuff is underground. The way they have it set up underground it is highly unlikely that a primary is ever going to cross a cable TV line.

So it had to be either a nearby lightning strike (quite possible with this crazy weather we've been having), a capacitor or some sort of discharge in your TV's power supply, or, a short in one of your cords. If those can be ruled out then perhaps it was ball lightening, Taliban mouse, or, the supernatural.

[ab1ga]

Wonder what happened last night. Was sitting here with the cable on & surfing the 'net, when there was what sounded like a gunshot down under the tv and behind something. Made a flash of light.

Total WTF!!! The lights went out (I think) momentarily, or maybe just the TV. Happened so fast -- hard to know. Before I could even think almost everything came back and was perfectly normal. Everything but the cable -- had a dark screen for a while.

So I got up to look for maybe a wall wart that failed or at least something that looked fried and didn't see anything out of the oridnary, and today, the cable is fine. Everything's fine.

WTF? That "gunshot" or "explosion" was just plain scary, and now, everythings been fixed. About all I can think of is that somebody fu'd and somehow got HV on the cable shield? And that blew a CONED breaker somewhere that got reset quickly? And that blew some line amp somewhere that got fixed, too?

Nothing on the news or the TW website. Probably should call them later.

Paul, I have a couple of questions:

1. When you're surfing the Web, where is the TV located relative to you? Next to you, behind you?
2. Is there a window in that room, and if so, where is it located relative to where you were and where the TV was? Shades open or drawn?
3. I seem to remember you live in an apartment building, but if you look out that window, can you see any power distribution equipment at all?

I suspect you didn't have an arc event in your apartment, or you'd see some evidence. But it's very tough to localize the origin of a loud sound, especially in an enclosed space. I'm wondering if there wasn't a fault outside your apartment. The light came through the window, possibly reflecting off the TV, which would lead you to believe it came from there. The bang could have come from anywhere, and you'd assume it came from where the light was.

The fault may have been on a line that services a building other than yours, which is why you didn't lose anything. But, that fault could easily have disrupted the cable equipment, requiring a reboot on your end or their end, or both.

The only way I can think of supporting this hypothesis is to talk to your neighbors in the building. If I'm right, everyone on your side of the building would have heard the bang and possibly seen the flash, and everybody in the building would have had a cable disruption.

Good luck in your hunt,

[N2RJ]

I think what may have happened was a short circuit somewhere that tripped the breaker.

If you don't have access to the electrical panel, probably the super or someone else reset the breaker.

That's the only explanation I can think of.

Con Ed in NYC is interesting in that they don't have a normal single phase 120/240 service. It's all 3 phase 120/208v (with typical homes getting 1 phase or delta to get 208v).

[W1GUH]

Thanks for the suggestion, Ryan, but the breaker wasn't in the apartment. It came back on automatically less than 5 sec. after whatever went off went off. Even before I started to react by going to check the breaker box.

Well, for now, I gotta chalk this up to hallucination. After all, I was in the midst of having powerful poisons injected directly into a major artery PLUS a couple of powerful drugs to counter-act the bad effects of that. As for the cable needing a reboot - chalk up to coincidence; it needs rebooting regularly, so that's plausible, too.

OK John, how's that? Does that fit your well-orderd, non-disturbing, logical world?

Speaking of Time-Warner. I sure wish they'd upgrade their boxes and software. That damn thing is sooooo sluggish. Hit a key on the remote, wait a few seconds for anything to happen. And ALL the reboots all the time. Cheesh!

Talked to their tech service about this. They've been very, very good at solving problems & it's usually pleasant talking to them. So I had a few moments to kill while they rebooted me & asked about that sluggishness. The answer was "that's normal." Wow....the public must be very, very tolerant ot fhis?

Probably because it's programmed in (yuck!) Java! :stickpoke::evil::cool2:

[NQ6U]

It was probably one of those acid flashbacks they've been promising us since the Sixties.

[W1GUH]

Pity I missed that particular party, dammit!

[N2RJ]

Speaking of Time-Warner. I sure wish they'd upgrade their boxes and software. That damn thing is sooooo sluggish. Hit a key on the remote, wait a few seconds for anything to happen. And ALL the reboots all the time. Cheesh!


Last time I had a cable box was in 2006 when I had Cablevision.

Now I use media center on my HTPC with CableCARD. No more crappy cableco equipment for me!

If you want a quality experience I would suggest doing the same. If you have a reasonably newish PC lying around (Core 2 duo and up is fine) you can hook it up to your TV and get one of the 4 tuner Ceton InfiniTV cards for $269 from Amazon. Put Windows 7 on the PC and run media center. Get a remote and IR receiver (USB) from ebay. Call up Time Warner, tell them take back their box and give you a CableCARD and tuning adapter.

You'll save the monthly rental, DVR fee and you'll have a kick ass setup like I do. You can integrate hulu and netflix if you wish.

I have 8 tuners driving 4 TVs. Four cable tuners and four over the air (antenna) tuners. I pay zero rental for equipment (and no sales tax either!) I even purchased the cablecards (which is normally $3 per month). No DVR fee either.

[W2NAP]

Put Windows 7 on the PC .

thats evil.

[N2RJ]

thats evil.

It's awesome. Despite all of its flaws, Windows 7 media center is one of the better DVR platforms out there. Surely beats TiVo by a mile, who despite using Linux based its new GUI on Adobe Flash.

[W2NAP]

<- this guy wont own anything microsoft.

bring a winderz machine to my place and get charged $100 just for bringing it. this is a no microsoft zone.

[W3WN]

It was probably one of those acid flashbacks they've been promising us since the Sixties.
Ah. That explains it. I missed that one, I had two Fifties and then moved right on into the Seventies...





[apologies to Field of Dreams, but I couldn't resist]

[W3WN]

Last time I had a cable box was in 2006 when I had Cablevision.

Now I use media center on my HTPC with CableCARD. No more crappy cableco equipment for me!

If you want a quality experience I would suggest doing the same. If you have a reasonably newish PC lying around (Core 2 duo and up is fine) you can hook it up to your TV and get one of the 4 tuner Ceton InfiniTV cards for $269 from Amazon. Put Windows 7 on the PC and run media center. Get a remote and IR receiver (USB) from ebay. Call up Time Warner, tell them take back their box and give you a CableCARD and tuning adapter.

You'll save the monthly rental, DVR fee and you'll have a kick ass setup like I do. You can integrate hulu and netflix if you wish.

I have 8 tuners driving 4 TVs. Four cable tuners and four over the air (antenna) tuners. I pay zero rental for equipment (and no sales tax either!) I even purchased the cablecards (which is normally $3 per month). No DVR fee either.Hmmm. Wonder if I can do something like that with Verizon FiOS?

[KC2UGV]

Hmmm. Wonder if I can do something like that with Verizon FiOS?

Doesn't FiOS give you a coax handover? If so, you should be able to.

[n2ize]

<- this guy wont own anything microsoft.

bring a winderz machine to my place and get charged $100 just for bringing it. this is a no microsoft zone.

Same here. Although a couple of the dual boot systems here can be booted into Windows it is discouraged.

[n2ize]

Doesn't FiOS give you a coax handover? If so, you should be able to.

Not here. Here it goes directly from fibre to ethernet cable. But that is because I don;t have the FiOS TV, just the Internet. If I were to put in the TV they would switch over to coass cable. Actually I prefer ethernet because I can plug any router into the ONT and get a connection. If they run coass then i have to use a router that can handle to coass connection. However, I have no plans to put in the TV. I really have no interest in TV whatsoever.

[W3WN]

Doesn't FiOS give you a coax handover? If so, you should be able to.I'm not sure what you mean.

Fibre comes in from the pole to a converter box on the outside of the house. From the box, we get our analog telphone connection, and 100 Base T Ethernet to the internal router. From that router I get the internal LAN and a coax feed for the video receiver boxes (which was the old RG-59 connections for the old cable system from TCI pre-Comcast ownership, which we used for DirecTV's feeds when we bought the house). Now, THAT coax feed might be the one you're thinking of.

[KC2UGV]

I'm not sure what you mean.

Fibre comes in from the pole to a converter box on the outside of the house. From the box, we get our analog telphone connection, and 100 Base T Ethernet to the internal router. From that router I get the internal LAN and a coax feed for the video receiver boxes (which was the old RG-59 connections for the old cable system from TCI pre-Comcast ownership, which we used for DirecTV's feeds when we bought the house). Now, THAT coax feed might be the one you're thinking of.

Yeah, that's it. The coax handover to TV (I didn't know if you got some weird set top box for it or something). You should be able to do the same, courtesy of CableCard :)

[N2RJ]

Hmmm. Wonder if I can do something like that with Verizon FiOS?

You can absolutely do it with FiOS. I know lots of people who do, including Ben Drawbaugh from Engadget.

You wouldn't need the tuning adapter with FiOS because unlike many cable providers they don't use switched digital video (SDV).

FiOS TV service is just like the cable company except that the fiber goes all the way to your home instead of to a node on the pole in the street.

AT&T U-Verse is different. They use IPTV and send the video signal as data over twisted pair.

[W2NAP]

I'm not sure what you mean.

Fibre comes in from the pole to a converter box on the outside of the house. From the box, we get our analog telphone connection, and 100 Base T Ethernet to the internal router. From that router I get the internal LAN and a coax feed for the video receiver boxes (which was the old RG-59 connections for the old cable system from TCI pre-Comcast ownership, which we used for DirecTV's feeds when we bought the house). Now, THAT coax feed might be the one you're thinking of.

oh man TCI cable. they were awesome here. as soon as comcrap took them over. service went to shit.

[N2RJ]

I'm not sure what you mean.

Fibre comes in from the pole to a converter box on the outside of the house. From the box, we get our analog telphone connection, and 100 Base T Ethernet to the internal router. From that router I get the internal LAN and a coax feed for the video receiver boxes (which was the old RG-59 connections for the old cable system from TCI pre-Comcast ownership, which we used for DirecTV's feeds when we bought the house). Now, THAT coax feed might be the one you're thinking of.

What he means is that FiOS TV is just like digital cable TV except that the fiber to coax converter is on the side of your house and not on the pole (and is not shared with your neighbors.)

Virtually all modern cable systems use fiber for most of the way from the headend then terminate that fiber in a "node" in your neighborhood. That "node" can serve up to 500 and more houses. The line extenders (amps) are placed after the node on the coax side in a regular cable system because of the long cable lengths.

Verizon simply put that "node" on the side of your house. However, Verizon uses three light wavelengths, one each for data, voice, video. The phone portion is just that, a regular POTS line (it's not VOIP) that terminates in a twisted pair. The video portion connects via coax to your TVs (via the settop boxes or cablecard device). The data portion can be served via MoCA over coax (to the actiontec router) or directly via an RJ45 ethernet jack which may run to the actiontec instead for new installs. MoCA runs at frequencies above 1GHz. The TV side runs 54 to 860MHz but I believe the ONT can do up to 1GHz (all opencable devices now are required to receive up to 1GHz).

What is interesting is that the Verizon settop boxes get the ondemand content via MoCA and need the actiontec router so they actually pull the ondemand content over IP.

But regular linear TV is delivered in the same exact way as conventional digital cable.

[W3WN]

What he means is that FiOS TV is just like digital cable TV except that the fiber to coax converter is on the side of your house and not on the pole (and is not shared with your neighbors.)

Virtually all modern cable systems use fiber for most of the way from the headend then terminate that fiber in a "node" in your neighborhood. That "node" can serve up to 500 and more houses. The line extenders (amps) are placed after the node on the coax side in a regular cable system because of the long cable lengths.

Verizon simply put that "node" on the side of your house. However, Verizon uses three light wavelengths, one each for data, voice, video. The phone portion is just that, a regular POTS line (it's not VOIP) that terminates in a twisted pair. The video portion connects via coax to your TVs (via the settop boxes or cablecard device). The data portion can be served via MoCA over coax (to the actiontec router) or directly via an RJ45 ethernet jack which may run to the actiontec instead for new installs. MoCA runs at frequencies above 1GHz. The TV side runs 54 to 860MHz but I believe the ONT can do up to 1GHz (all opencable devices now are required to receive up to 1GHz).

What is interesting is that the Verizon settop boxes get the ondemand content via MoCA and need the actiontec router so they actually pull the ondemand content over IP.

But regular linear TV is delivered in the same exact way as conventional digital cable.So in short, the coax output from the router that feeds the Verizon set top boxes is, for the purposes of this discussion, functionally the same as the digital feed from a Comcast box. Gotcha.

I'm going to look into what's available for "TV Tuner Cablecards". If I can find a card that let's me run a TV Video via a PC, that won't cost me another ding on the bill from Verizon, I'm all for it.

[n2ize]

Okay, my mistake. I was thinking of the coax that VZ runs from the ONT to the router in some installations. In my case they run ethernet cable from the ONT to the router. One day a VZ tech was looking at our installation and he was surprised we had ethernet cable between the ONT and the Actiontec router rather than coax. Nice thing is that when my Actiotec router crapped out I was able to connect my Linux/server/router directly to the ONT. Once the DHCP lease ended the Linux box was able to pick up an address and run directly off the ONT and my whole network stayed online. I ran this configuration till VZ got a new router out to me.

[W3WN]

oh man TCI cable. they were awesome here. as soon as comcrap took them over. service went to shit.I think that may have depended on the service area.

Locally, TCI bought out a company called Center Video (originally from Center County). CV's customer service stunk. TCI's wasn't much better. I had more than a few run-ins with them... imagine paying your bill, in person, in cash, at the local office... and then having your service disconnected 2 days later for non-payment. Because the local office (allegedly) hadn't told the home office in Denver that payment had been made... and Denver's computer (allegedly) thought I was 2 months behind, when I wasn't.

I heard that things didn't improve much when TCI merged into the old AT&T and became AT&T Broadband. By then, we'd switched to DirecTV... when they were still owned by Hughes. Their service went downhill after a few ownership changes as well, but that's another story.

Comcast? They pulled a great one in the neighborhood a few years ago. We border on Mt. Lebanon, which had been an Adelphia service area. Shortly after Comcast took over Adelphia locally, they had a contractor crew checking service at the poles. I come home from work one Friday afternoon, and their truck is blocking my driveway, as they're checking the pole in front of the hosue.

That evening, the entire neighborhood lost their cable service; you should have heard my next door neighbor, I'd never heard anyone cuss in Albanian before.

What happened? Well, that contractor was supposed to check the lines in Mt. Lebanon, and (since they were from out of town) didn't realize that they'd crossed into Castle Shannon. So of course, none of the stuff up on the pole (however they identify things) matched what they expected in Mt. L... so they reported them all as illegal connections, and Comcast shut down or disconnected all of the "illegal" service. On a Friday night. And then everyone went home for the weekend.

And THEN the Comcast weasels wouldn't send anyone out to "fix" the problem until Monday or Tuesday. Overtime, you know.

I know a ham who works for Comcast, so I made a phone call (& that's how I learned about most of what happened). He knew who to call. The trucks were back out checking things at 11:00 that night. And I heard that it cost Comcast something to "make things right". (And I don't want to ID my friend for obvious reasons!)

[N2RJ]

So in short, the coax output from the router that feeds the Verizon set top boxes is, for the purposes of this discussion, functionally the same as the digital feed from a Comcast box. Gotcha.

Correctamundo.


I'm going to look into what's available for "TV Tuner Cablecards". If I can find a card that let's me run a TV Video via a PC, that won't cost me another ding on the bill from Verizon, I'm all for it.

There are two of them available today - InfiniTV by Ceton and HDHomeRun Prime from SiliconDust.

InfiniTV has 4 tuners, HDHomeRun has 3. But the advantage of HDHomeRUn over the others is that it is a network attached device (ethernet).

[W2NAP]

I think that may have depended on the service area.

Locally, TCI bought out a company called Center Video (originally from Center County). CV's customer service stunk. TCI's wasn't much better. I had more than a few run-ins with them... imagine paying your bill, in person, in cash, at the local office... and then having your service disconnected 2 days later for non-payment. Because the local office (allegedly) hadn't told the home office in Denver that payment had been made... and Denver's computer (allegedly) thought I was 2 months behind, when I wasn't.

I heard that things didn't improve much when TCI merged into the old AT&T and became AT&T Broadband. By then, we'd switched to DirecTV... when they were still owned by Hughes. Their service went downhill after a few ownership changes as well, but that's another story.

Comcast? They pulled a great one in the neighborhood a few years ago. We border on Mt. Lebanon, which had been an Adelphia service area. Shortly after Comcast took over Adelphia locally, they had a contractor crew checking service at the poles. I come home from work one Friday afternoon, and their truck is blocking my driveway, as they're checking the pole in front of the hosue.

That evening, the entire neighborhood lost their cable service; you should have heard my next door neighbor, I'd never heard anyone cuss in Albanian before.

What happened? Well, that contractor was supposed to check the lines in Mt. Lebanon, and (since they were from out of town) didn't realize that they'd crossed into Castle Shannon. So of course, none of the stuff up on the pole (however they identify things) matched what they expected in Mt. L... so they reported them all as illegal connections, and Comcast shut down or disconnected all of the "illegal" service. On a Friday night. And then everyone went home for the weekend.

And THEN the Comcast weasels wouldn't send anyone out to "fix" the problem until Monday or Tuesday. Overtime, you know.

I know a ham who works for Comcast, so I made a phone call (& that's how I learned about most of what happened). He knew who to call. The trucks were back out checking things at 11:00 that night. And I heard that it cost Comcast something to "make things right". (And I don't want to ID my friend for obvious reasons!)

here tci was pretty reasonable.. never had an issue with them. till comcrap bought them out. it went to hell fast. we d/c'ed pretty quick after.

[W1GUH]

Took another up-close and detailed look at the "mystery spot." Still, there is no evidence whatsoever of anything bad having happened. BTW....the sound and sight was vaguely familiar, and I finally remembered what it was like. Sounded and looked just like a flashlight cracke (http://chuckbam.com/Firecracker/FWStand/fwpage.htm)r.

Over on the 'zed, someone suggested that it may have been outside & I just saw a reflection. That could very well be true.

Those 1 1/2 inchers were great. Loud and bright - my favorite firecracker!

[n2ize]

Took another up-close and detailed look at the "mystery spot." Still, there is no evidence whatsoever of anything bad having happened. BTW....the sound and sight was vaguely familiar, and I finally remembered what it was like. Sounded and looked just like a flashlight cracke (http://chuckbam.com/Firecracker/FWStand/fwpage.htm)r.

Over on the 'zed, someone suggested that it may have been outside & I just saw a reflection. That could very well be true.

Those 1 1/2 inchers were great. Loud and bright - my favorite firecracker!

I remember some of those brands. Some of the firecracker brands I used when I was a kid were, Anchor, Red Leaf, Peacock, Bango-Martian, Black Cat, Yank-E-Boy, Lion Jets, Atom-Bombs and Bad Boys, and some others I can;t remember off hand. In those days they were all LOUD!!!! Of all of them Black-Cat's and Yank-E-Boys were the best. Not only were they the loudest but they seemed to have the fewest duds. Of course you never wasted the duds. If you had a dud you convert it into a sizzler. Matter of fact after 4th of July we used to scour the curbs looking for unexploded ordinance (i.e. duds).

Then of course we had the heavy artillery. Ash Cans, cherry bombs, M-80's, and, Blockbusters. They were ​LOUD !!

[W1GUH]

And they were fun to flush down the toilet!

[n2ize]

And they were fun to flush down the toilet!

Yes... One day this guy in my high school flushed a blockbuster down the toilet. Supposedly it blew the pipe open and water leaked through the hallway ceiling. Cost the local taxpayers a some money to have that fixed.... One day a couple guys blew up a blockbuster in the hallway stairwell as classes were passing. The explosion shook the whole school, nearly gave my history teacher a heart attack and caused a girl who was close by to suffer partial hearing loss. The next day they called an assembly in the auditorium and they had a lieutenant from the police department address the entire school. he warned everyone that igniting any further blockbusters in the school will prompt a police / fbi investigation and the perpetrators would be arrested charged with committing an act of terrorism. Well, they didn't actually call it "terrorism" back then but the list of charged he gave would be the equivalent of terrorism nowadays.

[K7SGJ]

I've tried to digest all the information presented on this anomaly, and have formed my own opinion on what may have happened. I think it better explains the sights and sounds experienced by the op. The first thing I did was to analyze the weather data from the area, and nothing presented by the NWS indicated any unusual weather conditions, or any storm activity in or around the area. Ruled out. A thorough examination of police and fire dept. records for the entire county, there were no reports of any activity, of any kind within a +/- 30 minute window of the reported time of the event. Ruled out. An in depth investigation was undertaken to review the results of the i-spy-in-da-sky sat system that triangulates and computes the exact location of the discharge flash of a firearm, lightning strike, static discharge from people shuffling across the carpet and touching a door knob, kids rubbing balloons on their hair and sticking them to the walls, and geeks lighting farts in the bath tub. Ruled out. The noise? Sonic sensors around your area recorded nothing above 87.325 db. Ruled out. No air, rail, or other heavy commercial traffic occurred at or near your location at the time of the incident. Ruled out. The presumption that some think something occurred outside and was a reflection in the window that you observed, was not possible because your fuckin curtains were closed. Ruled out. A problem with the cable could not have happened because they canceled your service because you waste so much of their time with your silly-assed phone calls. Ruled out.

This now brings us to what I feel is the most plausible explanation. The biggest contributing factors are your age and your employment status. You have too much time on your hands. Get a job and get out of the GD apartment, and you won't be there to see things that you have imagined and described. The other possibility, and most compelling I might add, is AGE related. The flash. I believe you may have had an ass cramp, and turned so quickly, that that long gray hippy hair crossed your field of vision giving the ILLUSION of a flash. In concert with that, I believe it startled you so much, you farted, and hence the sound you heard. You have reported you have looked everywhere for evidence of the incident, but I ask, "did you ever check your shorts"?

And another thing, don't be dragging your hippy ass over to the other site for advice. Here is why.
Another contest weekend, every one will be on again, and I won't have anywhere to operate. The Peoples Republik of Kalifornia. If someone comes at me with machine guns, grenades, and C4, I can kick their ass with my kung foo; or run over them with my van that has radios from dc to light in it so I can do 100 WPM CW while going 90 MPH on the freeway and never get a ticket. Black widows, big rocks, and radios every fuckinwhere. (country song?) Winlink should not be allowed. Echolink isn't real radio. Code testing should be reinstated. I'm closing this thread for no fucking reason, and only because I can (created with Dragon Natural Speaking v 11.5). Yada yada yada. Need I say more? Now then,

GO GET A HAIR CUT AND A JOB

[W1GUH]

:clap::rofl::cheers:

Wow. You really went all out of determine the source of the confusion. Roger. Wilco. Gonna get out, get a job, and a haircut (but I get to choose which one! :neener:) And I guess you're guaranteeing that it won't happen again?