voltage on the FM antenna terminals?!

[Hemingray]

Well, finally recapped my RCA Victor AM/FM radio today (See other post to see this radio). Started on testing her out after that, and does she sound wonderful! However, when the rabbit ears I was using to test it fell over, one dipole contacted the top of the computer next to it. When that happened, there was a bright spark, a loud snap and the GFCI the radio is plugged into tripped out. What would have caused this to happen? The rabbit ear antenna now has a huge black spot where it sparked out. Did I inadvertently short something?

[jeyurkon]

It sounds like you probably shorted something. Without seeing a schematic it's hard to guess what. Even a hot chassis set shouldn't have a hot antenna. Hopefully your computer doesn't have a hot chassis.

There is one wiring error on a grounded outlet that doesn't show up with a simple tester. If the hot is made ground and the ground and neutral made hot it'll test o.k., but the ground will be hot. I found this out the hard way while stupidly having one hand on an appliance and the other turning on a faucet.

Another possibility would be if they use the power cord for a FM antenna. Sometimes there's a silver mica connected from one leg of the line to the antenna input. If it has one and it was shorted...

John