The place was Hong Kong.

It was around Xmas, 1945.

I was alone in the lab.

Working on a set of airborne radar equipment strewn around the workbench.

The scanner was not rotating, just pointing out of the open window, past a
Royal Navy cruiser moored in the harbour about a mile away and onwards to
Victoria City with the island's mountainous peaks in the background. All
displayed strong echos on the PPI on its 10-mile range.

As indicated on the PPI there was something intermittent.

I suspected a poor coaxial cable connection.

Familiarity breeds contempt.

Forgetting the equipment was still switched on I unscrewed one of the many
coaxial connectors and Pye plugs.

To clear out any foreign bodies I inserted the tip of by my right forefinger
into the vacant socket.

Now that particular socket was power output from the modulator unit on its
way to the transmitter unit. The transmitter was a 50 Kilowatt magnetron
which required unpteen thousand volts, pulsed at several hundred times
persecond with a one microsecond pulse width.

How long I lay on the floor I do not know. Probably only a few seconds.

I trembled all over which passed off after a few minutes. Apart from a white
burn on the afore-mentioned fingertip the after-effects were
sychological - it took several days to pluck up courage just to re-enter
the lab when I had difficulty looking in the direction of the offending plug
and socket.
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Reg, G4FGQ