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Re: Funky Topload Ideas



Original poster: "David Sharpe by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <sccr4us-at-erols-dot-com>

Terry, Chris, All

This reminds me of a situation that occurred about 5 years ago.
A coworker was driving in early one morning in a windstorm.  A
power pole was leaning sideways into the trees and had caught some tree
tops on fire.  The opposing traffic coming toward our colleague was
stopped for some strange reason, so he kept driving at about 40 mph.
About 12' away he saw the reason everyone was stopped, a energized
20kV laterial going to the power pole, about 7' off the deck!  His
small pu truck cab cleared the wire... but the CB antenna didn't...
BBBURRRAPPTTT!  KABOOM!  A ball of fire about the size
of the PU bed about 4 feet from your head even through the sheetmetal
and glass will definitely wake you up in the morning!!!

The CB antenna mount was full penetration welded to the body of the
truck, vaporized the whip.  But amazingly since the antenna was base
loaded, the
CB wasn't damaged (I heard it, it still works!!!) and no damage to the
electrical system in the truck.  Definitely not recommended
"extended warranty" treatment... =:^0

Regards
Dave Sharpe, TCBOR
Chesterfield, VA. USA


Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>
>
> Hi Chris,
>
> The "rope" that holds the car up may attract a streamer and burn up.  That
> could drop the car which would be "bad".  The radio antenna and other such
> exterior electrical things will have to be grounded out or the stereo will
> go dead.  The car's electronics "should" be safe.  The car designers try
> real hard to make that stuff tough but you may be finding new ways to
> damage the electrical system, which the car company might pay you for ;-))
>
> You may remember TV shows that demonstrated an electric wire sticking up in
> the street that police would "zap" a car's electrical system with to stop
> fleeing cars and such.  Once the car companies saw that, they immediately
> fixed that electrical system "flaw".  The potential danger of a vulnerable
> electrical system is a high liability thing.  Cars are supposed to be able
> to take direct lightning strikes without electrical system failure.  But it
> is all theory...
>
> Cheers,
>
>         Terry
>
> At 06:26 PM 11/20/2001 +0000, you wrote:
> >The topload for our 6" setup is actually suspended by construction twine
> >from the ceiling. we've had great success with this for several months and
> >the idea of hanging a topload is a good thing for us. It allows us to vary
> >the height and makes the coil more stable since the topload isn't balanced
> >on top. I'm wondering how many others have done this, and to what extent.
> >The idea of using a small car (preferably not Geek-3) as a topload suspended
> >by rope over a large coil would make an interesting finalle for the winter
> >Teslathon. any thoughts on this?
> >
> >
> >duck
> >