Watch those meter leads!

[SR385]

I have to disagree about the fear part. Maybe I just see things differant or express things differant but the way I see it is that if you are afraid of it then you should not be working on it. Fear does not necessarily bring caution with it.Fear can lead one to the mindset that since they do not want to work on it then they may be ill prepared to work on it and THAT can be very bad.

There's truth in that....

I've been offered jobs as a lineman several times over the years. It's been tempting on and off but I declined to do it after getting a taste of light weight HV.

I used to be a sound engineer, and did a ton of field/festival type setups. In the course of doing that there were always major power drops that had to be patched in from large distribution panels with the Edison type friction jumpers. One of the local festival fields had an exceptionally large distribution panel, definitely had HV levels coming into it, no clue from memory how many phases it was split down to but it was a lot of juice for sure.

My buddy was teaching me how to patch in. The process was relatively simple, all big nuts and bolts etc. However, while standing there, you could actually feel the current cycle in your bones when you were up close to the box. That feeling alone was enough to keep me away from it. It just felt like death is the best way I could describe it. Simple rules to follow to keep safe, but you don't really get any mistakes you walk away from doing that work.

I figured it was best I didn't work on it.

 

[Bionic Chicken]

Ever had that feeling in your bones when you were in the room with a "Big HF Amplifier" operating? I have to operate the UHF klystrons in the TV transmitter sometimes without the covers on them when troubleshooting problems. No way around it. You can feel it..................and it's not a good feeling at all. I try not to do that very often but sometime can't avoid it.

BC

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Ever had that feeling in your bones when you were in the room with a "Big HF Amplifier" operating? I have to operate the UHF klystrons in the TV transmitter sometimes without the covers on them when troubleshooting problems. No way around it. You can feel it..................and it's not a good feeling at all. I try not to do that very often but sometime can't avoid it.

BC

Have you managed to have any kids since then?

Klystrons without the shields. Yeeeesh! My best is a 50 Kw AM transmitter and all that did (as far as I know ) was make my hair on my arms stand on end and do weird things to the change in my pocket when I was in the ATU hut.

 

[Bionic Chicken]

Only one. But he was born naked and with no hair on his head.
I guess exposure to all the RF caused that.:drool:

With them being water cooled it sometimes cannot be helped. You have to fire them up to make sure you have no leaks or have fixed the leaks. Water and HV just can't get along for some reason. Also when you get it back on the air at 3 am it is real easy to head home and worry about it after a few hours sleep. In a couple of weeks I'll start to install a new high power IOT UHF transmitter for HDTV use. The old analog is coming out with a standby to take it's place until Feb. 09. The Harris NTSC xmtr has been a good one. We installed it in March of 93 and it still has the original klystrons in it. 133,000 hours + now and still going. They have never been pulled out since the install. I doubt the IOT's will give this type of service.

BC

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Only one. But he was born naked and with no hair on his head.

I would be worried if that was NOT the case.

 

[cyclops1970]

Something that shocked the crap out of me (pardon the pun) is how a person is able to THINK in that millisecond it takes for the voltage to go in and out of you.

I once got into a Yaesu amp (FL2100???) and as the voltage went in my left index finger, up my arm, across my chest, down my other arm, and out my right palm, all I could think was "You've really #$@%ed up this time...you're dead" along with the whole "my life passed before my eyes" deal.

Then I picked myself up off the floor seven feet from where I was standing, went outside and puked my guts out....the only thing worse than the puking was the copper taste in my mouth and the end of my finger burned to a crisp...

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Amazing how a good jolt of 2400 volts can make you feel isn't it? It is odd that the common thing about anyone getting a good jolt is that thay feel sick to their stomache. It really messes up the old body for a while.