3-500Z Toobs!

orange

Veteran and General Yakker
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Broken beyond repair but highly affable
#4
Shrapnel from one exploding is probably more likely a hazard...the old Gates 5,000 watt transmitter at the radio station down the road for several years had very thick glass with wire reinforcement in case of that. Now they have a nice little modern one that could fit in a coat closet.

PS My late uncle once shorted himself on a dummy load, he lived but yeah, felt like a dummy about it.
 
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FredR

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#5
Amp voltage is measured in kilovolts. And the mandatory dummy load. Yes, hams have been killed (silent key) when careless. 20170210_235655130_iOS.jpg 20170210_235405368_iOS.jpg
 

FredR

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#9
​That gave me all sorts of interesting information, including facts of really dangerous voltages.
Friend of mine has a Henry 3K linear amp that he got at an estate sale. The ham was careless and took 3,000 volts. Managed to live for 3 days before passing.
 

FredR

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#12
On a brighter note, how about an amp designed to make removing the transformer easy before shipping?
20170211_222101443_iOS.jpg
 

jbeckva

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#15
Plate voltage on those .. wow. The P3 HF amps had a single tube, but all ceramic housing if I remember right. Heard about someone getting bit one time, threw em 10 feet.
 

stuwee

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#16
Dang, I searched thru the forums for pics of my buddy Dale's old transmitter monster tubes from the KGUN 9 tower station he monitored, totally enclosed in alloy heat sink fins, weighed about 30 lbs each, the pics might still be on TapeHeads forums.

Anyhoo, cool stuff ya got there. I found this old thread from deep in Phoenix's bowels :D, great times...Larrt, Lee and the stuwster going at it in classic style, brought a tear to my eye ... What? Huh? Hmmm

http://forums.phxaudiotape.com/showthread.php/258-Ever-seen-his-bad-boys-before
 

Netfly

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#17
It may be a Klystron tube you're looking for. That's often used for very high power transmitters.


BTW It's not the voltage, but the current that kills you. If you scrape your feet on a carpet, the static discharge can be several thousand volts. Air breaks down at about 20kv per inch. A car ignition will jump an inch or two to hit you. That can be 40kv with enough current to hurt you a bit. HV power supplies will jump out and touch you too. Been hit by 20 and 40 kv supplies several times. Worst was a 100+ kv burn in fixture for new caps. They sat in liquid flourinert that prevents arching, unless one gets uncovered. It jumped a foot or more to hit me...ouch that hurt. Thankfully the very low current made it relatively safe.
 
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