[ARC5] Hallicrafters S-38 is dangerous

[Glen Zook]

There were a number of broadcast band only AC/DC receivers made with metal cabinets for the consumer market. Glen, K9STH Website: http://k9sth.net
      From: Richard Knoppow <1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com>
 To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net 
 Sent: Monday, November 16, 2015 10:43 PM
 Subject: Re: [ARC5] Hallicrafters S-38 is dangerous
   
    That cap could be dangerous since it goes from one side of the line 
to the cabinet. The danger is that the line connector is not polarized 
so there is no guarantee the chassis and cabinet, if this cap is bad, 
won't go the hot side rather than the neutral. There is another 
dangerous cap which goes from the "ground" terminal on the antenna 
connector to chassis through a paper cap. If that shorts much the same 
thing would happen. Grounding the chassis there might prevent such 
problems.  Still the problem does not exist where the cabinet is 
non-conductive as it is on my home portable radios.  I wonder if there 
is any record of anyone ever being hurt due to a shorted cap in an S-38. 
Probably there is for AC/DC equipment generally but I can't think of 
one.  Of course, these caps are very old now and almost certain to be 
leaky.  It would be interesting to measure the voltage from cabinet and 
"ground" lug to power line neutral.
    Actually there was danger from DC lines also but if the plug was 
reversed the set wouldn't work at all.