At 05:31 AM 6/26/00 +0200, Peter Sundberg wrote:
> >In this ham shack I have a rule: There will be NO high voltage present
> >anywhere during receive mode. Period. Non-negotiable. End of discussion.
>
>Larry, I see absolutely no reason for this.
>It will only make things more complicated, and serves no purpose.
Peter, are you trying to tell me that high voltage on is a safer condition
than high voltage off?
>220V AC
>(Europe) is just as lethal as HV and we find that in all power supplies in
>the shack . Why not switch off the 220V AC too during receive mode.. ? :-)
I do. The 120 main stays on to run the receiver.
>
>The way to preserve safety is to use good cables, good connectors and to
>think twice before sticking your fingers into ANY equipment.
Many years ago, after the second time I woke up on the wrong side of the
room with smoke curling from my fingers, I had an epiphany. It went along
the lines of "three strikes - you're out!".
Since each time this occurred, the equipment was in the receive mode, I
sensed a pattern. It seemed my befuddled brain insisted that since the
receiver was on, the transmitter must be safe, and proceeded to stick my
hand in where it didn't belong. At this point I was reluctant to trust
behavioral modification to prevent a repeat performance. It appeared that
the only way I was going to survive was to insure my brain was correct in
it's assumption.
Since that time, many years ago, all my high voltage supplies have been
turned off for even the briefest receive period. Also, since that time, I
have not had occasion to wake up on the other side of the room with smoking
fingers.
If the above is not a sufficiently purposeful reason to do this, then I
guess the numerous technical reasons for doing it wouldn't change your mind
either. Each to his own.
73,
Larry - W7IUV
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