[ARC5] RF Exposure

[millerke6f at aol.com]

My Mentor, Bob Galloway, K6CXB  (SK)  caught a redwood tree on fire.  One end of his dipole was attached to said tree and some of the branches were apparently touching said dipole.  He and I were out in his shack and Bob was having a nice QSO on 75 meters with his trusty Rock Crusher transmitter (pair of 4-400s modulated with a pair of 810s) and I guess the voltage at the end of the antenna was high enough to torch off the tree with vigor.  Keep in mind that it's really hard to get a redwood tree to burn and in Eureka CA everything is always wet as well.  Speaks to the voltages that can exist on any antenna and especially with a good solid KW exciting the system.  Twas quite a night to see the local FD arrive to put out the fire as Bob and I watched while his wife looked with disgust,  That Bob and I toasted the FD folks with our glasses of prime California Vino did not augur well with his wife either.  Ah those were the days!


Bob, KE6F



-----Original Message-----
From: Jay Coward <jcoward5452 at aol.com>
To: releazer <releazer at earthlink.net>; arc5 <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tue, Mar 11, 2014 9:23 am
Subject: Re: [ARC5] RF Exposure



Climbing down off the flying bridge of my Dad's fishing boat, I grabbed the 
antenna for a handhold without thinking... as he keyed the mic on the 150W 
Apellco! I almost went over the side! Lesson learned!
Jay



-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Eleazer <releazer at earthlink.net>
To: arc5 <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Mon, Mar 10, 2014 5:19 pm
Subject: [ARC5] RF Exposure


As far as being harmed by RF exposure, I once keyed up my Icom IC-215 and 
appened to have a finger against the SO-239 antenna plug on the back.  That 
ure hurt!  I put a Caplug over it after that.
 And my high school physics teacher described when he was stationed in Long 
each in the 1930's, he keyed up his ham rig and heard shrieks from their maid, 
ho was hanging wet laundry on the clothesline at the time.  The clothesline was 
ire and was nicely arrayed to catch the RF of his transmission.
And no, he was not using the clothesline as an antenna.
Wayne  
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