[BC] Transmitter Safety

[RichardBJohnson at comcast.net]

I learned not to trust anybody at the transmitter site
as well. While working for WARE, I wanted to go to
work for WDEW and fix up an old Western Electric.
Therefore, I needed to find somebody to take my
job at WARE. In the "olden days," we didn't just
resign. We would find somebody to take our place
before moving on. It was an unwritten rule because
the station needed a First Ticket engineer in
the nighttime. I found an unemployed First-Ticket
holder by the name of Joseph Baublis. I introduced
him to the owner, Al Roberts, and he was hired
to replace me.

A few months laster I got an "emergency" call from
Baublis, stating that the transmitter was off-the-air,
and he need some help. It was a RA1000, built
like a brick outhouse so I couldn't imagine that it
would be too much of a problem getting back it
on-the-air.

While reconnecting the leads to the plate transformer,
that had somehow been cut off, I was suddenly
paralyzed with my hands wrapped around HV
terminals. I had to use my legs to rip myself free,
breaking apart transformer terminals in the process.
As I was laying on the floor, trying to get my breath,
Joe Baublis was prancing around like an Indian
doing a war-dance, laughing about it. Baublis
had disabled (shorted out) the door interlocks
and blocked the bias relay so that the plates
could come on, even without filaments, drive,
or bias.

I went to the Warren Police. I wanted to have him
arrested, but the police would not do anything. They
called Al Roberts and he met me at the transmitter
where I fixed all the broken stuff and got the transmitter
back on-the-air.

Joe Baublis left town. Hopefully, he never tried
to kill anybody again. Periodically, I scan the net
looking for his name. I think I found him, but I'll
let sleeping dogs lie.

My rule has since been, one hand PLUS keep
everybody in sight. I have never gotten an electrical
shock since, even though I have designed and
tested many high-power transmitters and tested
high voltage supplies that have no protection
(yet), no boxes, no overload relays, nothing....

--
Cheers,
Richard B. Johnson
Read about my book
http://www.LymanSchool.org