[Amps] Question about safety ground connection

[R.Measures]

On Nov 18, 2005, at 8:23 AM, Bill Turner wrote:

> At 02:43 AM 11/16/2005, you wrote:
>
>> 17-yrs ago, the first guy who ever went about installing a
>> low VHF-Q parasitic suppressor retrofit kit in a HF amplifier  was
>> killed because he did not first switch off the 5000VDC anode supply of
>> the amplifier (that he built).  Whose fault was that?  The dead guy's
>> relatives inherited well over $10,000,000 from his estate and they
>> didn't even send me a thank you note.  Ironically, the guy's callsign
>> was W5DH, so WA6MFJ, Bob, gave him the phonetics "W5 Dead Ham".
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> My God, I had never heard this story before. The very FIRST guy?

yes.  He phoned me after reading the original article about parasitics 
in the October, 1988 issue of *QST* and said that he had been looking 
for a means of stabilizing his squirrelly 2x 4-1000A amplifier for 
several years, and that the article made sense to him.   I got the bad 
news in a couple of weeks

> You must have felt awful even though it was clearly not your fault in 
> any way.

True enough.  If I ever get to be 80+, have a "senior moment", and 
touch the live anode of a tetrode-with-handles amplifier, I'll avoid 
dying a slow death in a hospital eating shitty food and having nurses 
wake me up to give me a sleeping pill.    (a true story)

> Sometimes those feelings are hard to shake. My sympathies, most 
> sincerely. I hope you have put it behind you.

In <10-seconds, Bill.
  cheers
>
> 73, Bill W6WRT
>
>
>

Richard L. Measures, AG6K, 805.386.3734.  www.somis.org