[Milsurplus] For God's Sake- Stop and Think

[Mark Richards]

I learned my last lesson (had several previous attempts at entering the
Darwin Awards including grabbing onto a 6146 plate cap before discharging
the filter capacitors) when cleaning the dusty (obvious reason) pastic plate
current ammeter face in an old FM broadcast transmitter (4.3kv @ 2.5A).  How
to clean this meter, recessed as it was behind an open cutout?  Why, with a
handy thumb, of course.

When the announcer on duty, facing the transmitter room, saw a "bright blue
flash" followed immediately by my body airborne - 8 feet - smashing into a
steel desk and then landing in an unconscious heap, he figured that this was
in a perfect setting: the station broadcast religious programs at the time.

>>You never can be too careful, as the saying goes...

The thumb still bears the scar, reminding me always that throwing caution to
the wind can make one very dead.

/mark
k1mgy