Re: My variac bites =0

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

Original poster: "S.Gaeta by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <sgtporky-at-prodigy-dot-net>

> if the breakout point was angled in my direction I would probably get a
> strike but not to worry as I have a grounded rod about 1" away from me, in
> front :)

Jason, All

I know that the above statement was made in jest, but there is a photo
amongst my junkpile somewhere that I took in my pre digi-cam days when I
first started to ressurect my medium coil. I was also in the middle of
restoring an old tube type transmitter. It was sitting upright on a formica
and plywood topped desk with metal legs, and a metal compartment for storing
school supplies (it's an old school desk). The transmitter had nothing
connected to it, therefore it was electrically floating. The photo shows a
steamer going 6" beyond the ground rod, and hitting the transmitter chassis.
I did not see this during the run, and was really suprised when I first saw
the photo. It had to be that this particular streamer saw the inductive
reactance of the 18 AWG ground cable as being higher than the capacitive
reactance of the transmitter chassis and ground.

I have not powered up the transmitter since that incident. Hopefully it
survived being that it is all tubes except for the bias supply. Now that
Winter is approaching, and I am getting interested in ham radio again, I
might be in for some excitement when I hit the big switch! If I post a
picture of my new frizzy hairdo, you will know why :-)

Cheers,
Sue