Working around high voltages?

[rayfri]

More than anything else....   watch where your hands are at all times.
I was working on a two way radio in a news vehicle once and my needlenose
touched the plate cap of the final....  600 volts.  I still remember my ears
popping,
me screaming, and the needlenose sailing across the parking lot due to the
involuntary arm jerk..
      AND, I'll have to live the rest of my life remembering my cousin who,
after
retirement, did some part time broadcast engineering...   He and the owner
were
working on the transmitter one night...  The owner went around the corner
and
suddenly heard a big POP... when he went back around the transmitter, my
cousin
was dead on the floor....   He'd apparently somehow touched a high voltage
point...
to this day they dont know how or which one...
WA7ITZ


David Hollander wrote:

> Hi Alan - don't trust the bleeder resistor in the power supply. Before
> you start working, take a shorting stick such as an ice pick or long
> necked screwdriver and short the B+ to ground even after it has been
> turned off. I used to place an ice pick through the top of the
> perforated aluminum cover on my home brew 4-1000 and touch the tube cap
> plate to the cover. If you look in the real old handbooks say 1940's and
> 1950's they talk about keeping a shorting stick with your transmitter.
>
> I always do this when working on tube equipment. The one time I forgot
> to do it was with my 4-1000. The bleeder resistor had overheated and
> opened up unbeknownst to me. I went to brush a dust bunny off of the top
> of the plate choke with my little finger and immediately got nailed with
> 5000 volts which knocked me across the room. My hand throbbed and hurt
> for the next 24 hours but their was nothing visible. Remarkably, I did
> not have to wash my clothes!!! When I told my kids who were than 4 and 5
> years old about what had happened to daddy, they asked me if I had seen
> my bones like in the cartoons!
>
> I know of hams in the past working on big amps or commercial
> transmitters who were not as lucky.
>
> Good luck and be careful.
>
> 73,
>
> Dave N7RK
>
> --
> ***********************************************************
> Dave  N7RK                    http://members.cox.net/n7rk
> Phoenix, Arizona         *DXCC Honor Roll*    *WAZ#23 - 75 Meter SSB*
>
>             ex-XE2/N7RK, N7RK/ZB2, VK2ERK, ZM0AJN, WB6NRK, WN6IWX
>
> Boatanchor Collector Extraordinaire preferring Hallicrafters, National
> and what ever else looks interesting!
>
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