• You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.

Sparky and the dangers of RF

Lets face it if you are running so much power that you have to put it in a vehical that is 20yrs old cause it would fry the computer in a newer car you are running too much ! ! ! !

Here's a thought if the d@mn computer can't take the RF you realy should be thinking about weather or not YOU should be taking that level of exposure ????

JUST A THOUGHT :)
 
I'm just wondering who butchers up a 1963 Corvette to install a 9 KW amplifier? I mean the car has like zero metal ground plane with the fiberglass body. Never mind what the modifications to the engine compartment must have been like to get the required alternators in. Seems like a waste to me when 1 KW in a metal body vehicle would probably out talk it.
 
That wouldn't translate as "If you don't respect Radio Frequencies you will end up Real F@cked" would it?

pretty sound advice,especially around microwaves.

Pretty close. :laugh:

We always refer to anything that emits RF energy as RF for short and you are correct on the last part.

Nothing quite as exciting as going into the transmitter shack of the radio station as a young boy and watching them use an old hand saw to go into the transmitter to discharge all of the stored energy in the damn thing before they would start working on the problem. :eek:

MY dear departed Dad was working on a tube type radio in the 60's, a black face Johnson if I remember correctly and succeeded in getting a tiny hole burnt all the way through his right thumb dead center of the nail. He would hold it up to the light and you could see all the way through the tiny hole for several days before it healed.

Energy in any form whether it be AC, DC, RF, air, water, steam, etc can do things to you that there can be no return from. Don't fear it, respect it.
 
Energy in any form whether it be AC, DC, RF, air, water, steam, etc can do things to you that there can be no return from. Don't fear it, respect it.

I agree 100% When I was in broadcasting I routinely worked on transmitters with up to 5000 volts DC and often was alone when doing it. I did not fear it but I sure as hell had a lot of respect for it. Doing something and being afraid while doing it is never a good idea. Learn about it and understand the proper way to deal with it and act accordingly. Now that I am no longer in broadcasting and work in a manufacturing facility we all have to follow a strict lock out/tag out procedure. Failure to do so gets you a suspension and repeated offenses gets you a permanent vacation if you are lucky.
 
I'm just wondering who butchers up a 1963 Corvette to install a 9 KW amplifier? I mean the car has like zero metal ground plane with the fiberglass body. Never mind what the modifications to the engine compartment must have been like to get the required alternators in. Seems like a waste to me when 1 KW in a metal body vehicle would probably out talk it.

Someone should do an antenna model on that car.lol

And in response to CK's last post about lockout/tag out, this is one of the best ideas ever thought of, the other day I was using a wire feed welder which kept shutting down and on investigation found the power plug was loose in the power outlet and in that location also is an older AC stick welder and the plugs for it and the wire do not match exactly so the wire feed's plug would lose contact under load.

Being concerned about this I brought it my "supervisors" attention and his remedy for this was to add another outlet in the same line which would potentially allow both welders to be operated simultaneously and I brought that to his attention as potentially overloading that circuit and proceeded to tell me that that "would never occur", this is where I had a hearty laugh and where he got angry with my having a good laugh at his suggestions to this problem.

Needless to say I could have added another separate circuit for the other welder myself but safety being fore most here I went to his supervisor and told him what I've posted here with the suggestion that we bring in a licensed electrician to do the work and now am waiting on the back lash form my "SUPERVISOR" for going over his head on this issue, I am looking forward to this action.
 
Hey Mack, isn't it wonderful all the shit you can stir up when mentioning safety issues? :laugh: At work we are preached to again and again about using the proper protective gear and locking out equipment being worked on. All of us that need them have locks issued to us for such purposes and temporary helpers for cleaning etc. are issued locks but the department head for the day as needed.
 
My mentor years ago told me one time "If you don't respect RF you will end up RF."

If anyone can't figure out what he meant, PM me and I will explain it. :laugh:

I think I know what "RF" stands for....

That wouldn't translate as "If you don't respect Radio Frequencies you will end up Real F@cked" would it?

Actually I was thinking he meant "really fried".

Wow, I didn't know he had a speech impediment, that bit of info clears a couple things up.

Yep...first time I placed an order with him I realized he had a stutter.

Ever try talking to some of these guys that participates in Key Downs on a regular basses? Some of them don't have allot of brain cells left to play with...:whistle::pop:

That must be why almost everyone I hear on the superbowl (channel 6) talks real fast and repeats the same words over really fast...like one I heard say "bye-bye-bye".

I'm just wondering who butchers up a 1963 Corvette to install a 9 KW amplifier?

Well considering he did mention this was during the late 1980's when this happened, I'd say that a 1963 Corvette wasn't thought of as a collector car then. In fact most classic muscle cars were just starting to come to light as "worth something" in the late 80's. FWIW my dad bought a running and driving, but needed restored 1968 Camaro SS back in the 80's. Still had it's original 4 speed and 12 bolt rear, but the factory 396 was gone and a 400 in it's place. Dad couldn't even sell it for $11k back in the mid 80's after he professionally restored it. He even tried again around '92 to sell it $8k still no biters. He still has it today and now won't sell it. He also bought a 69 Nova in '90 and restored it and couldn't even get $5k for it back in '92. Now both cars would easily sell for almost twice what they couldn't sell for.
 
I think I know what "RF" stands for....



Actually I was thinking he meant "really fried".



Yep...first time I placed an order with him I realized he had a stutter.



That must be why almost everyone I hear on the superbowl (channel 6) talks real fast and repeats the same words over really fast...like one I heard say "bye-bye-bye".



Well considering he did mention this was during the late 1980's when this happened, I'd say that a 1963 Corvette wasn't thought of as a collector car then. In fact most classic muscle cars were just starting to come to light as "worth something" in the late 80's. FWIW my dad bought a running and driving, but needed restored 1968 Camaro SS back in the 80's. Still had it's original 4 speed and 12 bolt rear, but the factory 396 was gone and a 400 in it's place. Dad couldn't even sell it for $11k back in the mid 80's after he professionally restored it. He even tried again around '92 to sell it $8k still no biters. He still has it today and now won't sell it. He also bought a 69 Nova in '90 and restored it and couldn't even get $5k for it back in '92. Now both cars would easily sell for almost twice what they couldn't sell for.

I'm sure your Dad considers himself lucky today that no one purchased those cars when he had them for sale. In 1990 I purchased a 1967 RS Camaro that had the disk brake option and a 1969 427CID 435 HP engine for just over $5000. Most of these cars were cheap then but the Corvette was easily three times more money. Especially one from the early 60's with a split window.

That car should have been worth at least $15K when $15K was equal to $30K today. Not to mention there were almost no amplifiers for your car in the 1980's that could approach 10 KW and good luck fitting it inside the 63 Vett. The biggest transistors in those days were the MRF454 and the MRF492. Quite a difference from the 2SC2879 and AC boxes (other then sweep tubes) were practically non existent.

I'm not going to say the guy was lying however, the story is nearly impossible to duplicate with that car in that time. At that power level and complete lack of ground plane under the antenna, he would be just as likely to fry from RF inside the car touching anything metal as he would from the antenna outside.

If you still think this story has any creditability to it, consider the Goldenrod45 antenna said to be used. The 1980's version of this antenna used a top loading coil wound on thin fiberglass rod to feed the horizontal loops. It was made from wire no larger then #14 and was sealed in heat shrink tubing. By the time you got this coil to handle 9 KW it's physical dimensions would be nearly as big as the two loops.
 
I worked for a major communications company for many years, we were required to wear RF monitoring devices when we went to a site. RF can and is harmful to any living tissue if it is overexposed. The higher the frequency the more pronounced and quicker the damage can occure even at relative low levels of power. To come into contact with an antenna at 5000 watts would give you some pretty good burns that are not just surface burns, they can go all the way to the bone. If one is going to play around with this amount of power one really needs to understand the nature of the beast.
 

dxChat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • dxBot:
    Tucker442 has left the room.
  • @ BJ radionut:
    LIVE 10:00 AM EST :cool:
  • @ Charles Edwards:
    I'm looking for factory settings 1 through 59 for a AT 5555 n2 or AT500 M2 I only wrote down half the values feel like a idiot I need help will be appreciated