Re: A shocking experience!

When I was a crazy teenager, my best friend and I built a homebrew linear
amp. We used four 357B's in grounded grid. Our power supply was built around
what was referred to as a "power peg transformer" that was taken out of
service by our local power company. We were good friends with one of the key
big shots in the power company who gave us the transformer. It was still in
the metal can, and we had to remove it from the metal can, which was full of
oil and PCB's, and let the transformer drain. It took a long time for all of
the oil to drain. When we got the power supply built, it put out a very
solid 1500 volts and at least 20 amps DC. We made one very bad mistake when
we built the amp. We stuck the amp meter in the B+ line going to the plates
of the 357b's instead of putting it in the ground return side. At some
point, the glass front got broken on the amp meter, and I found out the hard
way that if I touched my finger to the needle of the meter when also
touching the grounded chassis of the amp, I would get knocked for a loop!
That's exactly what happened, and I got hit with the 1500 volts. When I woke
up, I was upstairs on the couch with a big hole burned in my finger. That
sure messed up my Braille reading for a while! <lol>

Ron, K8HSY