[OZAPRS] Upside down power supplies

[Darryl Smith]

Another thing popular in the electrical trade is what is called a 'Suicide
lead'. Basically a standard plug on one end, and alligator clips on the
other.

In a previous life I had a requirement to make a three phase 'Suicide
Lead'.
It was a serious business requirement. Unfortunately the smallest three
phase outlets were 100A per phase (we had bigger would you believe). This
made for one fun piece of equipment. And for those who claim that this did
not apply to AS-3000, you are wrong. It was fully compliant. Page 1,
Section
one states that AS-3000 does not apply to the Electricity Industry
(generators and distribution). 

What we were doing was connecting it to a three phase 11KV motor, and
doing
protection testing on it to make sure that all the devices that were
designed to test for open phases and over current worked. The only problem
was that my boss was doing testing at one stage and had three fluke
multimeters to ensure that there was volts on each phase. But plugged then
all into this lead on Current. Result, three dead fluke meters. 

As for the electrical inspector who got zapped. He should be sacked.
Anyone
who works on electricity stuff should prove dead before touching it. The
householder was wrong, but the inspector was too. 

Another time we were testing a 11KV 8 MVA motor with connected to a
415->11KV transformer to ensure that the motor had not been damaged by
some
tradesmen. The motor did not turn, but it did energize which was cool. 

What is funny is that whilst I was working at the power station I could do
whatever I wanted below 1000V. Above that I just needed to get someone
else
to isolate, but I could supervise people and do the work. Now I am out of
the industry, to get a license I need to 
	* Have an Electrical Engineering Degree
	* Prove that I have two years *POST* university wiring experience
	* Do several TAFE courses.

The best part - I was plant owner for DC Systems and Switchboards. I had
something like 1-200 MWatt of 11KV and 415V switchboards under my
control...
But now they don't trust me to replace a light fitting.

Darryl

-----Original Message-----
From: ozaprs-bounces at aprs.net.au [mailto:ozaprs-bounces at aprs.net.au] On
Behalf Of Damien Gardner Jnr (Home)
Sent: Saturday, 22 December 2007 11:48 AM
To: VK / ZL APRS Users
Subject: Re: [OZAPRS] Upside down power supplies


-----Original Message-----
From: ozaprs-bounces at aprs.net.au [mailto:ozaprs-bounces at aprs.net.au] On
Behalf Of Terry Neumann
>I'm still immensely annoyed that the extremely useful Clipsal 463 
>piggyback plug was banned from purchase by the common people in 
>Australia some years ago.  They are readily available in New Zealand 
>(branded Made in Australia), but these days they are apparently only 
>available to the theatre industry over here.   Apparently the reason
for 
>the ban was that some turkey somewhere once bought two of them and made

>an extension cord - innovative because you can use either end at the 
>wall outlet - pity about the exposed pins at the other end though ....

>As someone once observed: It's hard to make things foolproof because 
>fools are so ingenious!
>

I remember when that happened - was '91 or so..  Having met a few
double-ended 'faggot-plugs' ratting around backstage back in the day,
I'm kinda against general plebs getting hold of them myself..  But it
would seem that the ban has been lifted (or at least relaxed, and
tradies can now buy them?), as I bought a couple about a month ago from
Turks :)

Cheers,

Damien
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