On Sat, 6 Oct 2007 15:45:49 -0400, "Jimmie D"
wrote:

Please tell me, how is this any more dangerous that troubleshooting
under the chassis of a tube receiver.

You are holding one conductor, and standing on the other.

You dont have to do it that way, You are assuming the worst possible
condition. It can be done safely.

Hi Jimmie,

Sounds like the passionate "Trust me" every teenage boy assures his
date in the back seat. "We can do this safely if I don't...."

With a nearly infinite amount of current behind the fuse (the part of
the wire you are closest too) and standing on an nearly infinite sink
of current; sure you can do it safely IF... (with a chain of
conditions that must be all met, with any one of which that fails
results in death).

You are not going to buy this device off the shelf, certainly no
vendor could afford the liability. You have to expend some effort
(however slight) to build it yourself. It then argues, with the same
effort, why don't you do it right?

An equally (possibly more) accurate method might be as simple as
digging up a spadeful of earth and counting the worms. If you can't
sink the shovel, you already know you have poor earth and you've saved
the cost of a fuse-blower.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC