[Boatanchors] Re: [Johnson] THE VIKING II AND FRIED HAM

[Jim Brannigan]

Huh?
Why won't your shrink tubing stick, I've never had a problem here.

The same applies to insulating the terminals on a Dow-Key relay.  Shrink 
tubing carefully applied to the soldered joint will cover substantially all 
the exposed area.

For more protection or to create a "fat wire" in a connector, wrap the wire 
with electrical tape and cover the tape with shrink tubing.
This will keep the tape in place.

Jim

> The original matching connector is a dangerous thing. It is all but
> impossible to get shrink tubing to stick to the pins and electrical tape 
> around the
> whole connector will eventually dry up and come off. I have no connection 
> with
> Glen, but his connector is a very safe way to access the antenna relay 
> socket on
> both rigs.
>
> Many hams, myself included, either mount the antenna changeover relay on 
> the
> rear of the Viking or on the receiver rear panel. Some others simply use a
> double male SO-239 connector. My point here is that the terminals on the 
> relay
> coil need to be insulated, too. Back in the 50s when I built my Viking II, 
> I
> remember trying to get tape to stick to the supplied plug, but I don't 
> recall
> ever insulating the terminals on the relay coil.  How I kept from being 
> fried
> with this arrangement is a wonder to me. I guess being a fresh new ham, I 
> never
> thought too much about it. All the cautions back in those days from my 
> Elmer
> were to be wary of HV. I guess nobody gave line voltage a second thought 
> and if
> they did, it was not talked about very much.
>
> Remember, it is not the voltage that kills, it's the current. An 
> electrical
> current flowing through the body is looking to find a ground. When it does 
> the
> body reacts by contracting muscle tissue. When this happens and you happen 
> to
> be holding on to something, you can't let go. If nobody is there to stop 
> the
> flow of current, ventricular fibrillation occurs when electrical signals 
> from
> the brain to the heart are interrupted. The result is that the heart 
> begins to
> beat in an irregular rhythm and is unable to pump blood properly. Unless 
> the
> victim received proper and immediate first aid, death follows shortly. You 
> have
> heard the phrase from old timers: "Keep one hand in your pocket while 
> working
> around voltage sources." The idea here is to keep you from having current
> flow across your chest and through your heart.
>
> I am not a doctor, nor a medical practioner of any sort, but many first 
> aid
> courses, electrical safety seminars and a few nasty bites have taught me 
> to
> respect all sources of voltage be they LV, HV Line voltage or even 
> batteries.
> "Switch to safety" and install 3 wire cord sets on all your boatanchors. 
> Being
> able to probe around in much of the solid state gear has caused many to 
> become
> complacent about shock. Don't let your guard down.
>
> 73 and stay safe,
>
> John,  W4AWM