A good friend was over last night and we got to talking about HV mishaps. He
said his worst experience happened while wiring up a new contest station.
Evidently, the owner of the station had wired the 220VAC outlet for the amp
incorrectly. He couldn't remember exactly how it had been miswired, but I
gather that one of the hot leads was connected to either the ground or
neutral pin, putting AC voltage on the amp chassis. My friend grabbed the
coax from the transceiver, which was was either grounded or plugged into a
correctly wired 110VAC outlet, and grabbed the coax coming from the amp. I
guess he was going to connect them with a barrel connector or something. So,
one hand is grabbing a grounded PL-259 the other one hand is grabbing a
PL-259 with AC power on it. All he could do was just stand there, alone in
the room and being electrocuted, unable to let go. I imagine that the brain
would be pretty whacked out by this experience, but he says he was aware of
what was happening and couldn't do anything about it. His muscles would not
respond to any commands from his brain. Luckily, after about ten seconds,
his knees collapsed and he fell against the desk, which knocked the cables
from his hands.
What's truly amazing about this is that he was not instantly killed. I have
to believe that the AC path through his body went right through his heart.
Perhaps the ground connection was poor or he actually survived a brief
stoppage of his heart. This may be totally unrealted to the incident, but
many years later, at the age of 38, he started having grand mal epilleptic
siezures. They were not real frequent, but had to be controlled with
medication. He also claims to have some problems with long-term memory.
Still, he's in very good shape considering that he could have been dead.
It's not a cure-all, and wouldn't have helped my friend in that particular
situation, but the old rule about one hand in the pocket while working
around high voltage makes some sense.
73, Dick, WC1M
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