On Thu, 14 Jul 2005, Roy Lewallen wrote:

Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 00:48:01 -0700
From: Roy Lewallen
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.homebrew
Subject: QUESTION: Fun with Svetlanas or Staying alive with kV power
supplies

straydog wrote:
. . .
arcs and smoke can be intimidating. Just the surprise from an arc can make
you jump in an unpredictable way and if not hurt yourself from the
electrical shock, then you'll bang your head or something else. . .

In a previous life, I was reaching way to the back of a cabinet of radar
equipment for some reason. I was lying on my stomach, my arm was extended all
the way, and my head was into the cabinet doorway about at the forehead
level, with a couple of inches clearance above and below. Of course all the
safety precautions were followed -- some of the heavy ground radar stuff I
worked on was easily lethal. But there was some charged capacitor, something
hot from another cabinet of gear, I don't recall, and I got a minor shock. My
instinctive reaction was to jerk my head up, and it hit the top of the
doorway. That hurt and made me reflexively jerk my head downward, hitting the
bottom of the doorway with my forehead. That caused a jerk back upward,
hitting the top again, and so forth. There I was, oscillating up and down,
beating my head to a pulp, knowing exactly what was happening but helpless to
do anything about it. It continued for what seemed like a long time, until I
was sore enough that I couldn't feel one more whack, when I was finally able
to stop and extract my head and arm. I guess I've felt as stupid a few times
since, but only a few times.

And when you bend your arm every which way in order to get at something, it
might go in all twisted contorted, but it comes out fast and straight when
you get bit. I've lost a bit of skin that way, too.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL


Yep. Great story. Reminds me about that sad/funny joke about the guy, his
tower, bucket of tools in a wooden barrel, ropes, pully, and somehow he
goes up and down the tower, wooden barrel breaks so the counterweight
disappears and he goes down again....broken bones, cracked skull, all
kinds of hospital damage. Funny/sad. Similar to the chainsaw joke. Anyone
remember or have those jokes stored away somewhere that they can drag them
out?

I didn't think I had any "funny" jokes like the tower joke, etc., but I
definitely had some non-fatal "war stories" to tell. I also built a couple
of those "repulsion coils" as a kid. Aluminum ring & coat hanger wire core
& couple hundred turns of number 14 gauge wire, plug into AC line and the
ring would shoot up 1-2 feet. Neat. Playing around with a high turns coil
on it one day and didn't realize my fingers were on some terminals and I
must have gotten a thousand volts pressed against my thumb: ergo, two
burned spots on my thumb. And, that burnt flesh stench. Gawd did it stink.
And, it hurt like hell.

Radar? I've heard a couple of stories of guys who walked in front of those
dishes not knowing they were putting out KWs of microwaves and they got
their tummy microwaved into cooked beef. Killed em dead. Better have a
buddy around and you can ask him: "Hey, I think this thing is turned
off...Am I thinking right? Please go look at all the switches and check,
tubes lit up, fans running, hum from transformers, other noises? Please?"



Art, W4PON