On Wed, 24 Jan 2007 16:12:24 -0500, "Jimmie D"
wrote:

Oh, you reveal you age.

Hi Jimmie,

I did my apprentice work in TV as a teen in the mid 60s. The real
challenge came when I was in the Navy (1970) and we put out a call to
the Bay area for folks to donate their TVs for charity (Xmas of 1970),
and the ET school would fix them for free for redistribution to the
needy.

My crew took in 100-150 TVs and 200 radios and turned out 60 or 70 TVs
and nearly all the radios. Some TVs were so old as to have vertically
mounted tubes with a mirror to view them. I taught the fellows how to
cannibalize the truly dead to resurrect the lame. This was the gift
of a Navy technical education. At sea, there was no mall to pull
into and go to Radio Shack - you had to make the broken stuff work or
the Captain would keel haul you. This demanded every tech know
electronics, not board swapping. I never had such an enthusiastic
class. These guys learned like sponges, and tackled every problem
like a commando gutting a commie.

One interesting incident came when a student asked me for a set of
rabbit ears to test his work on a tough-dog TV. My budget was like
$20 a week from the Old Man's wallet (and I wasn't going to ask him
for that). I told the student that we had a ground bus-bar that ran
the length around the repair shed (a former laundry) that would work
just as well as it was many wavelengths longs so as to not short the
signal (sitting in the middle of SF bay offered huge amounts of
available RF).

He connected an alligator clip lead to the antenna input, the other to
the bus bar; the lead turned to smoke, the insulation dripped right
off like a length of spaghetti, and then fused open.

The astonished crew quickly learned the hazards of poorly engineered
grounds in commercial equipment, the hazards of using a service cord
to defeat an interlock, and why we in the trade called it a suicide
adapter.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

"Richard Clark" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 24 Jan 2007 16:12:24 -0500, "Jimmie D"
wrote:

Oh, you reveal you age.

Hi Jimmie,

I did my apprentice work in TV as a teen in the mid 60s. The real
challenge came when I was in the Navy (1970) and we put out a call to
the Bay area for folks to donate their TVs for charity (Xmas of 1970),
and the ET school would fix them for free for redistribution to the
needy.

My crew took in 100-150 TVs and 200 radios and turned out 60 or 70 TVs
and nearly all the radios. Some TVs were so old as to have vertically
mounted tubes with a mirror to view them. I taught the fellows how to
cannibalize the truly dead to resurrect the lame. This was the gift
of a Navy technical education. At sea, there was no mall to pull
into and go to Radio Shack - you had to make the broken stuff work or
the Captain would keel haul you. This demanded every tech know
electronics, not board swapping. I never had such an enthusiastic
class. These guys learned like sponges, and tackled every problem
like a commando gutting a commie.

One interesting incident came when a student asked me for a set of
rabbit ears to test his work on a tough-dog TV. My budget was like
$20 a week from the Old Man's wallet (and I wasn't going to ask him
for that). I told the student that we had a ground bus-bar that ran
the length around the repair shed (a former laundry) that would work
just as well as it was many wavelengths longs so as to not short the
signal (sitting in the middle of SF bay offered huge amounts of
available RF).

He connected an alligator clip lead to the antenna input, the other to
the bus bar; the lead turned to smoke, the insulation dripped right
off like a length of spaghetti, and then fused open.

The astonished crew quickly learned the hazards of poorly engineered
grounds in commercial equipment, the hazards of using a service cord
to defeat an interlock, and why we in the trade called it a suicide
adapter.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

I always called them fool killers, especilly the ones that used gator clips
on the end..

On Thu, 25 Jan 2007 09:24:00 -0500, "Jimmie D"
wrote:

The astonished crew quickly learned the hazards of poorly engineered
grounds in commercial equipment, the hazards of using a service cord
to defeat an interlock, and why we in the trade called it a suicide
adapter.

I always called them fool killers, especilly the ones that used gator clips
on the end..

Our name for them was a "Kills-me-quick."

One of my buddies aboard ship was holding just such a cord, plugged
in, and while he talked, or was telling a joke, we watched him flick
the cord around. Occassionally he would absent mindedly smack it into
his hand to emphasize a point. Absolutely no one was paying attention
to what he was saying. We all followed the arc of those leads
wondering when the big moment would come.

Of course we all knew CPR....

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

"Richard Clark" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 25 Jan 2007 09:24:00 -0500, "Jimmie D"
wrote:

The astonished crew quickly learned the hazards of poorly engineered
grounds in commercial equipment, the hazards of using a service cord
to defeat an interlock, and why we in the trade called it a suicide
adapter.

I always called them fool killers, especilly the ones that used gator
clips
on the end..

Our name for them was a "Kills-me-quick."

One of my buddies aboard ship was holding just such a cord, plugged
in, and while he talked, or was telling a joke, we watched him flick
the cord around. Occassionally he would absent mindedly smack it into
his hand to emphasize a point. Absolutely no one was paying attention
to what he was saying. We all followed the arc of those leads
wondering when the big moment would come.

Of course we all knew CPR....

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Ive done this watching a guy play with a charged cap. He had just charged it
up to place on the bench for some unsuspecting sole to grap, started running
his mouth and zapped himself.

On Thu, 25 Jan 2007 13:39:32 -0500, "Jimmie D"
wrote:

Ive done this watching a guy play with a charged cap. He had just charged it
up to place on the bench for some unsuspecting sole to grap, started running
his mouth and zapped himself.

As Cartman would say
"SWEET!"

Richard Clark wrote:
On Thu, 25 Jan 2007 13:39:32 -0500, "Jimmie D"
wrote:

Ive done this watching a guy play with a charged cap. He had just charged it
up to place on the bench for some unsuspecting sole to grap, started running
his mouth and zapped himself.

As Cartman would say
"SWEET!"


In our High School electronics shop, we had an entire Superhet tube
radio demo unit mounted on the wall, with all components pluggable.
Seniors and juniors were mixed in the class, and one of the favorite
rituals for the older guys was to pull one of the p.s. Electrolytics out
very carefully, and toss it to one of the new guys with a "catch it
quick" command.

Of course, I never partook of such tomfoolery.


- 73 de Mike KB3EIA -

On Thu, 01 Feb 2007 11:17:27 -0500, Michael Coslo
wrote:

Of course, I never partook of such tomfoolery.

Mike, what a lightweight.

I took a cap out of TV Buck-Boost section of the flyback (couple of
hundred pF rated at 20,000V, what is called a doorknob cap) and
charged it with a van-deGraff generator. Unfortunately it was my
Physics teacher that wondered what strange item I had on my desk....

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC