[Boatanchors] THE VIKING II AND FRIED HAM

[Peter Burbank]

At 09:32 PM 3/27/2007, Mark Richards wrote:
>W4AWM at aol.com wrote:
> >>"Keep one hand in your pocket while working around voltage sources."
>
>That only works if the hand that's not in the pocket remains as disciplined.
>
>Working in broadcast engineering, I had occasion to wipe the dust 
>off a plastic plate current ammeter face.  Pushing for my Darwin 
>Award, I did not ponder the question "why" when I noted that this 
>meter face (not all the others) seemed the most dusty.
SNIP
Hilarious Mark,
Reminds me of a similar story.
In the '50s I had a job with Jim, W0CRY in his shop. He had been a 
Chief Radioman in the Navy and after WWII was sent to
Sioux Falls to train RMs. One day they put a LtJG in charge of Jim 
and this guy followed Jim around to learn about radio
and was driving Jim nuts. Jim was checking the big transmitter tuning 
and opened the big rack door and had the JG hold the
door open. Then he stuck one hand in his pocket and drew a fat spark 
off the final plate cap with a pencil.
The next day all the trainees were there and the new LtJG strutted 
over to the big transmitter shouting "Group around men!"
Then he held the rack door open with his left hand and took out his 
pencil .Jim could foresee the outcome and jumped back out of the 
launch path.. At his point in the story I could barely understand Jim 
as he was laughing so hard with tears rolling down his
face and his huge stomach heaving up and down. Jim said the huge rf 
spark launched the young Lt. clear across the room
and slammed him against the wall. The new JG never bothered him after that.
73 Pete NV4V