[Elecraft] Lighting

[Ed Cole]

Another anecdote:

Summer of 1981 I was working for the BLM Alaska Wildfire Center in 
Fairbanks as a radio tech.  That summer a Class-A fire started near the 
town of Livengood and only three miles away from the Alaska Pipeline 
that brings crude oil from the north shore down to Valdez.  There was 
great concern that the fire would reach the pipeline so large response 
was activated.  I was assigned as the Radio Officer for this.

The main base camp was set up on a 2400-foot high ridge that overlooked 
the fire.  We had a tent dispatch center consisting of two vertical VHF 
antennas mounted on two 30-foot fiberglass "Hot Sticks" (so name as the 
telescoped from 8-foot and primarily used by power line workers for high 
tension lines).  From this contact was made over 75-miles to the BLM Base.

A wind storm generated considerable static electricity such that the 
HT's lying on the ground would draw a six inch arc if one were to try 
picking up the radio.  Initially being told by one of the dispatchers 
that the "radio bit her", I scoffed that a 6v radio could do that and 
promptly demonstrated my "intelligence" by getting shocked when I tried 
to pick one HT up.  Took me a bit to work out what was happening.  There 
was a pause in dispatch for almost an hour.

73, Ed - KL7UW