[BC] 110 V DC

[ChuxGarage@aol.com]

> >My question is:  Was there anyplace in the U.S. that was served with 110 
> DC
> >power?  If so I never heard of it.  If there wasn't then why were so many
> >radios made with AC/DC power supplies?
> 
> Absolutely.  Boston had it well into the 1970's.  I'm sure that New York City 
had it as well as lots of other east coast locations.

During my touring sound career, we were doing a Cat Stevens show in one of 
Boston's old Vaudeville style Theaters. (The Schubert, maybe?) The stage area 
had been updated for normal, modern AC service, but the dressing rooms and some 
other areas had DC outlets.  

One of the road crew took a Fender practice amplifier into one of the 
dressing rooms to tune the multitude of guitars.  Not thinking (or knowing) he 
plugged it into a two prong outlet and flipped on the power switch.  Nothing 
happened for about a minute or so until the power transformer came to a rolling boil 
and erupted in a very violent fashion.  It sure did stink up the place.  They 
even called the fire department.

Of course, a lot of the attraction of the AC-DC radios was they were cheap.  
Dangerous by today's standards, but cheap....

Chuck Conrad
KZQX Radio
www.kzqx.com