[TowerTalk] Working on High Voltage Lines

Jim Lux jimlux at earthlink.net
Fri Apr 27 00:37:21 EDT 2007


At 09:23 PM 4/26/2007, Art Boyars wrote:
>Sorry to be reviving a two-week-old thread, but I just looked at the 
>TT web archives for the first time in six months (used to read it 
>daily).  Skimming down the list I saw that N0RQ posted this link to 
>an amazing video: 
><http://www.glumbert.com/media/highpower>http://www.glumbert.com/media/highpower
>
>Not even W6RMK, the resident expert on special effects, questioned 
>the credibility of the video.  Am I the only one who doubts that 
>this is real?  Power line experts AD3F and VE6YC imply that things 
>like this happen, but can anybody say that people actually do 
>this?  Even flying the helo that close to the lines seems nuts, and 
>the video of the worker sitting on the lines, shot from slightly 
>below, seems unreal.

This is normal operating practice.. they've been doing it for 
decades.  Costs a heap of money to shut down a 3 GW power line (say, 
$0.05/kWhr, so $50,000/GWhr.)  At $150k/hr  so it's worth fixing it 
live.. Helos run a couple kilobucks an hour and you know the lineman 
isn't getting paid all that much.

I don't know when they started doing it first or where.

I  like the whole grounding rod thing to neutralize the charge.

And, it goes without saying that this is a "you'd better believe in 
Gauss's law and Faraday cages" sort of thing.

I'm a beliver in the HV aspect, but you won't catch me in a 
helicopter that close to the wires. They're just a collection of 
parts all trying to separate from each other. I *am* impressed at the 
skill of the helo driver.  Takes a steady hand to hold the helo like 
that and you can bet they don't do it on a windy day.


>73, Art K3KU


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