[Amps] Working on my Darwin award

[Tom Osborne]

I built an amp using a pair of 813's.  One time I was working on it and 
and had disconnected the power supply to work on the amp part.

When I turned it back on, I heard this buzzing noise in the receiver and 
the amp wasn't working.  I had a D-104 mic in my hand that I was going 
to use to key the exciter but things weren't working.

I reached over to touch the toggle switch on the amp to turn it off, and 
I became the ground return from the power supply.  It knocked me 
backwards and I touched the hot water heater (which was in the shack) 
and became the ground return again.  I took the B+ twice in about 5 seconds.

The power supply had a 2500 volt transformer in it.  When I hooked the 
B+ back up to the amp, I neglected to hook the ground wire from the 
power supply to the amp.  I was really glad I just touched it with the 
end of my finger and didn't grab onto something.

Sure gave me a respect for HV.  73
Tom W7WHY