[R-390] SAFETY

[Cecil Acuff]

Group....

The problem with that statement is that today you don't have to know much 
about the Volt, Ampere or the Ohm to get an Amateur license....nor the Dit 
and the Dah. (another soap box) And some of the newly minted Hams are 
collecting vintage gear such as the Collins stuff that was spoken of and our 
beloved R-390 series.  Picking up a variac at a local hamfest because it was 
a recommended item to have if one is working on Boatanchors and taking it 
home and just plugging it into the wall and plugging the newly acquired 
vintage radio into it appears to be all that is necessary to the 
uninitiated.  Wrong answer as was pointed out by Roy.  If you have been 
following his topics recently, you'll also know he was invited by the list 
Admin to post them...in detail....here!

This thread is related to safety and the use of a variac complicates the 
assurance of a safe environment to operate and test these radio's.  Though 
not necessary for the operation of a boatanchor once you have confidence in 
it, I would state it to be a necessary item on the bench where newly 
acquired equipment should go first and any repaired items should be fully 
tested.

No topic related to safety, yours or the equipments, is a waste of 
bandwidth.  If you feel you are all knowing and the safety topic doesn't 
apply to you use the DELETE key, that's what it's for!

If it saves one list member from having a bad experience or keeps one radio 
from being inadvertently damaged it was worth the bandwidth....period!

These radio's are inherently dangerous to work on and the newly graduated 
trade school students and/or newly minted Hams are not adequately trained to 
work on them safely.....but that doesn't keep them from buying them and 
trying.(a good thing!)  We should not only be sharing info on how to work on 
them properly but how to survive the experience as well!

Respectfully....

Cecil Acuff
WB5VCE


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Franklin" <dfranklyn at mindspring.com>
To: "Harold Hairston" <K4HCA at alltel.net>; "Joel Richey" 
<richey2 at mindspring.com>; <r-390 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2005 10:13 PM
Subject: Re: [R-390] Variacs


>
> Any Amateur Radio operator who doesn't knows the difference
> between an Ohm, a Volt and an Amp ought to take up bird watching.
>
> That's a thought!  We could always use a few more people looking for that
> "extinct" woodpecker ;-)
>
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