[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by jhalphen

Hi to all,

some recollections throughout time...

Age 10, had built 3 tube SW radio Knight-Kit "Ocean Hopper", worked fine.
Installed long wire antenna on balcony, touched antenna and balcony floor was all lead (Paris appartment building). As radio was AC/DC transformerless, got full AC shock. Luckily, was 110VAC back then (now 240VAC).

Age 12, tinkering with Kyoritsu Japanese 3" tube oscilloscope. Wanted to check filament voltage, 6.3VAC right? - wrong! Filament & Cathode is at -(minus) 1200V, didn't know that Scope EHT is not Positive at final Anode.

Age 30, call from help, office secretary, car won't start in winter.
Car is an old 1970s BMW, girl "absolutely sure car is positive ground, hubby told me".
Connect Batt cables from my car, wire instantly glows cherry-red, remove in milliseconds before Batts blow-up. Lots of cursing thereafter.

I started in radio at age 7 (1960), tube radios, bought for pennies at mother's charity rummage sales. Learned pretty quick about exploding electrolytics.
Was a very good lesson, learned to respect electricity at a very young age and being basically a cautious coward, probably saved my life many times afterwards.
Built a 50ft extension cord. "New" radios on test were in my room & would connect long extension near main panel & breaker. If no fireworks in room, would creep back cautiously 5min later to see if set worked.

Best Regards
jhalphen
Paris/France

The Knight-kit Ocean Hopper, while being a transformerless design, shows a line isolating capacitor from the B- to the chassis.
You should've just got a tingle instead a real shock!