"Calif Bill" wrote in message
...


Funniest event during school at Keesler was during a TACAN class. We ran
the units on Low Power. Only 3000 volts on the tubes. About 3kw dummy
load. We had a Vietnamese MAP student in the class. Had absolutely no
common sense when it came to electricity! When you needed to work on the
unit, you turned the dial on the front of the drawer to zero. Open the
drawer and use a shorting bar to make sure all the caps are discharged.
The kid did not bother turning down the power, and opened the drawer and
proceeded to touch the shorting bar everywhere. Sparks bouncing off the
12' ceiling and he never realized something was wrong or even different.
The instructor was in shock, the rest of us were in hysterics.


I have been just as stupid. While on a mid-watch at a Navy transmitter
site in Puerto Rico, I was working on an old AN/FRT-40 HF transmitter.
Shut the thing down, opened the rear door to the power supply section and
then was interrupted by a phone call or something. When I returned to the
transmitter, I hit my hand against a connection to one of the huge power
supply filter capacitors and discharged it through me. The muscle
contractions caused me to fly backwards about 7 feet back and about 4 feet
up against the building wall and for several minutes all I saw were stars.

I was lucky. That was my first high voltage, high current experience.
Had another later as a civilian that was worse.
Knocked me out cold and was rushed to the emergency room. Fortunately, no
permanent injury other than some bad burns on my hands.

Eisboch