Re: Why cant we feel RF burns?

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Ed Phillips <evp@xxxxxxxxxxx>

"In or case, the currents flow much like DC currents.  But the AC
nature of the currents prevents the nerves from reporting pain.

Cheers,

         Terry"

	I've had my share of RF burns over the years, one pretty bad, and
always felt almost instant pain from the heat.  As a kid I was playing
with a VTTC and trying to tune the primary with a big variable capacitor
and big knob.  The resonant frequency of the primary, based on memory,
had to have been of the order of a MHz or more so there was never any
hope of it working, but I did get plenty of RF (50 to 100 W maybe) on
the shaft of the tuning capacitor and thence to my thumb.  The know was
big (old Atwater Kent radio know) but unfortunately I didn't think about
the fact that the set screw went almost to the diameter of the "turning"
part of the know and drew a nice RF arc which burned about a 1/16" hold
into my thumb which took months to heal.  Fortunately I didn't end up
hooking "B+ to ground) through my hand.

Ed