[AMRadio] Re: A little trivia

[Bill Horne]

On Fri, 16 Nov 2007, "jeremy-ca" <km1h at jeremy.mv.com> said -
> Subject: Re: [AMRadio] A little trivia
> 
> I think it goes back to the day of early TV sets were the cord female plug 
> was riveted to the back plate. I remember a TV tech at our house around 1951 
> complaining that he left his cheater cord back at the shop.
> 
> Carl
> KM1H

I think it was called a "cheater" cord because it bypassed the safety interlock.
The whole point of disconnecting the AC when the back was opened was that many
TV sets were "transformerless" designs, where one side of the chassis was 
connected directly to the AC line. That meant that running the TV with the 
back open posed a risk of electrocution, and TV repair shops usually had an 
isolation transformer for use with cheater cords; it was a 1-1 ratio and served 
to prevent shocks when the repairman touched the chassis.

73, Bill W1AC