One dangerous (electrical) mistake was at 9 years old.
Sent away to Johnson Smith & Co. for plans and parts to make a radio the ad said, used no batteries or electrical power. It turned out to be a crystal set complete with cat-whisker, crystal, terminals, coil form, and wire. I followed the directions faithfully and bought an old junk store 50 cent headphone set (five weeks allowance..) I had no idea what an antenna or ground was, and neither did anyone else in my family. So I put on the headphones and inserted the bare antenna and ground leads into the house power socket. There was a flash and the house went dark. My mom excitedly replaced the fuses. I inspected the circuit, reversed the two wires and did it again. Same problem, but with a stern warning never to do that again.. Another stupid mistake was committed a month ago as I plugged in a "new" antique Heathkit Condenser checker without checking the AC wiring. The person who wired it long ago connected the hot side of the AC line to the black ground probe and as soon as the probe touched a chassis that I was working on, there was an amazing blast of light and a bang just before the room went black...I sat there for a very long moment contemplating life, and wondering if I was still here on earth. Could feel my pulse pounding in my temples, and that was a very good sign. Could have been easily killed either time. Guess there must be some other purpose for staying here on earth... and I'm dying to find out what. Jim - W1FMR _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com