Frank Alforo wrote:
If I touch the coil in my tuner while transmitting I get a painful rf burn.
But a bird can perch on my antenna wire while I transmit 100 watts and it
stays there seemingly without a care in the world. How come?

You could probably hang by one hand from a 20 kV power
line and be OK as long as you didn't complete a current
path to another wire or ground.
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73, Cecil http://www.qsl.net/w5dxp