Re: pole pig heaven

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

Original poster: "Kelly & Phillipa Williams by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <kellyw-at-ihug.co.nz>


Hi All!

I had the same experience, in the town where I live the power utility
company's yard is FULL of 50 or more pole pigs, in a similar range to what
Godfrey described below.

Expect, I picked my eyeballs of the footpath, rushed home, asked my parents
to come with me, raced back to the power company, found the manager and did
my spiel about the high voltage enthusiast, and could I please have a
transformer?

He said, come back tomorrow, and I'll have a piece of paper for you to sign
disclaiming our responsiblity if you kill yourself and claiming that you
will dispose of the oil and you can have a 5kVA 11,000 V (certified no
PCB's) transformer FREE!!!!!

My parents and I turned up with a trailer the next day, signed a form and
drove away with the transformer!

Neat! (Especially as I was only 14 at the time)

Regards,

Alan Williams



> 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
>
>
>
>
>