What I still wonder even today is how WRL/Leo Meyerson could make such death traps and get away with it.
I still have a Galaxy V that when you life up the lid, there is the PA cage fully exposed. What was he thinking? Could it have been $$$$$ by shaving costs. No interlocks on the "big boy: - the Globe King 500. David Knepper, W3ST/W3CRA ----- Original Message ----- From: <sbjohns...@aol.com> To: <amradio@mailman.qth.net> Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 2:35 PM Subject: [AMRadio] A special day today > > > It is indeed a special day today. I'm working on the restoration of my > old WRL Galaxy 300 SSB transceiver - my first SSB rig I bought as a new > General lo those many years ago. I had to pull use all my savings, > plus cash gifts from my parents and grandmother to scrape enough money > to buy it mail-order from Associated Radio in Kansas City. I think it > cost $229. > > This is the rig that put me in the hospital on Martin Luther King Day > 1977 or 1978. I was 13-14 years old, fooling around one evening in my > room, trying to determine why there was a tube shield on the Galaxy's > 6BZ6 RF amp tube. It is located right behind the finals in the PA > compartment. > > At one point I got very careless. With the transceiver turned on > (bad), in fact transmitting a full-power carrier (very bad), I lifted > the lid and reached back in with my right hand to remove the 6BZ6's > shield. Trouble is, to get to it I reached over the two 6HF5 finals and > their plate caps with about 900 volts DC, plus a couple hundred watts > of RF. My wrist touched the plate caps at the same time my fingers > reached the tube shield, and the shocking and the burning commenced. > My hand drew up in a fist, making it seemingly impossible to pull it > back out. With the pain of the electric shock and RF burns I couldn't > get my hand out! Fortunately I was only using one hand for this > madness, and I ultimately pushed myself away with my other hand on the > wooden desk. This also meant that the current had only flowed through > my hand and arm, not across my chest (very good). > > I had some pretty serious and painful burns on my hand and forearm. > Clutching my wounded limb, I sat on my bed considering my options. I > had a VERY BIG CONCERN that if I told my parents what had happened > they'd stop my ham hobby dead. I was also very embarrassed to have > hurt myself in such a dumb way. But I was also hurting pretty bad, and > worried about the side-effects of a strong shock, so I concluded to be > up-front about it. Not sure now how I would have hidden the injuries > anyway. now that I think about it thirty years later. > > They handled it very well, and took me to the hospital emergency room. > The doctor did not understand the situation very well and was checking > my feet for burns, worried about my heart, etc - and he demanded that I > be kept overnight. I was admitted and put into a bed in a room with > eight patients. > > All night long, every few minutes one or another of these poor souls > needed a nurse for something and would start calling out, ringing > bells, moaning and crying. The nurse would finally enter, switching on > the gigantic bank of fluorescent lights that lit the whole room like > the surface of the sun. Click... zzzzzz.. , snap, snap, snap as the > lights fired individually and finally hummmmmm they were on and I was > blinded by the light. No sleep for me, and I spent part of the the > next day in the hospital wasting a school holiday - Martin Luther King > Day. > > My parents never said a word in judgment of my foolishness or against > ham radio because of this accident. And I was able to "milk" my > injury to get me out of gym class for several months (very good). > > "Before" photos of the Galaxy 300 at > > http://www.flickr.com/photos/34505...@n02/sets/72157612756003726/ > > Steve WD8DAS > > sbjohns...@aol.com > http://www.wd8das.net/ > ----------------------------------------------------- > Radio is your best entertainment value. > ----------------------------------------------------- > ______________________________________________________________ > Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net > AMRadio mailing list > Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/amradio@mailman.qth.net/ > List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html > List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.html > Post: mailto:AMRadio@mailman.qth.net > To unsubscribe, send an email to amradio-requ...@mailman.qth.net with > the word unsubscribe in the message body. ______________________________________________________________ Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net AMRadio mailing list Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/amradio@mailman.qth.net/ List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.html Post: mailto:AMRadio@mailman.qth.net To unsubscribe, send an email to amradio-requ...@mailman.qth.net with the word unsubscribe in the message body.
