[Boatanchors] Collins Lied!! (was Death Angle)

[Rich Arland]

In the early 1970s I was stationed at Lajes Field, The Azores and had a recip license (CT2BH). At the time all I had was a Heathkit CW station (DX-60/HR10-B). One of the other hams on the island loaned me his Collins KWM-1 w/PSU. SSB here I come!!

This particular KWM-1 liked to eat driver tubes and ran excessively hot. Sooooooo, I removed the top of  the case to enhance cooling the PA cage. in order to further enhance heat removal, I pulled the top of the PA cage (where the PA tubes lived)! Now I was running the KWM-1 with total access to the plate caps of the 6146 PAs.

After a short "CQ" I snagged a UA2 in Russia. We were rag chewing on 20M when, for some unknown reason, I decided to place my hand over the top of the PA cage to see if it was running extra hot. Thankfully I was NOT holding onto the metal of the mike stand with my other hand when the index finger of my left hand caressed the top of the plate cap of one of the finals, while my thumb rested on the actual bare metal of the PA cage. Got a very nasty shock and suitable RF burns on my thumb and fingers.

I let out a scream, my wife flew into the shack to see what was going on, and the UA2 also wanted to know why I screamed like a girl!! My left hand was quite literally paralyzed for the next 30 minutes and the RF burns hurt like mad but otherwise, aside from being scared, I was in good shape.

That is when I noticed the "Danger 600 Volts" stenciled on the PA cage cover (which was still laying on the workbench). That got me to thinking that I needed to actually measure the DC voltage on those plate caps. I borrowed a HV probe from a fellow ham, keyed up the rig into a dummy load and I discovered that Collins had lied to me!! It was NOT 600V, but 800V!

I learned a valuable lesson that day: "Engage brain before working on items that can kill you!"

Vy 73

Rich  K7SZ