pole pig heaven

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Loudner, Godfrey by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <gloudner-at-SINTE.EDU>

Hi All

I drove from South Dakota to a near by town in Nebraska on a mission
unrelated to pole pigs. In the border town, I passed by the local electric
utility. About twenty feet from the highway were about 70 pole pigs. Of
course I had to stop for a self guided inspection tour. I saw KVA levels
from 5 to 100, and voltage levels from 2,400 to 34,500. All the pole pigs
had PCB free labels. I was very impressed by the huge 100 KVA units which
were ringed with large black cooling fins. The weight of these monsters must
be about 2000 lbs. After a while a company truck drove up and parked. The
official wanted to know what business I had with the company. I explained
the nature of HV hobbies, and used all the proper terminology. The official
was impressed that there were civilians who knew all about what he called
CANS---then he became very friendly. After he switched to friendly mode, I
just had to put the BIG QUESTION to him. He explained that all the
transformers were going to be picked up by a metal salvage company. Probably
to keep me from committing suicide on the spot, he did hold out some hope.
"Which ones do you want," he said, and I said, "the 5KVA/7,200V and the
25KVA/34,500V." He told me that he would ask the metal company how much
money it would take for them to leave the two transformers behind. I would
be buying from the metal company. The official explained that there was too
much paper work involved for the electric utility to pass any transformer
into my possession. He did come pretty close to telling me to just go ahead
and load up on the spot the baby 5KVA/7,200V, but wandered back to the
official position. On the positive side he did ask for my name and telephone
number in case he could make a deal with the metal company. But I not
getting up any hopes. If I get the transformers, then GREAT! If I don't get
the transformers, then its just another day in the big picture show called
life. 

Godfrey Loudner