Downed power lines

More like brain dead. A "metallic ore outcropping" would have a low resistance and would be safer than fairly dry soil. You are fighting a loosing battle, just like all the other crap threads you start.

Doggone, you beat me to that one.

John

Yes, you're right. You post on the same level of misconceptions, and I lost track.

If you are wrong, you are wrong. Without doing a lot of accurate measurements and crating a map for that specific fault, its not safe. Period. You can't bend the laws of Physics no matter how long you hold your breath and stomp your foot in anger.

Sometimes the sky isn't blue. Have you ever watched the Aurora Borealis up close? The whole night sky is all kinds of brilliant colors. There isn't a color in the visible spectrum that you won't see, if you watch it long enough. Try watching it from the top of a TV tower in Alaska sometime. I don't care what color the grass is. When it needs cut, it needs cut. A brown patch of grass here means that we've had lots of rain. Otherwise its all brown in the Florida heat.

Look, dude, if you're that obsessed with handling downed power lines, why not email the Darwin Awards, and have them send a camera crew to observe while you perform the experment of using your magical tool to de-energize the wire and save the world?

Good Luck! Bobo

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Exactly right - and even worse than you indicate. Apparently the bolt cutter/long pole/garden rake one foot hopping crowd has never seen what they are speculating about. The damn wires dance! Jump around all over the place. We had one go down in the snow, and it stayed live for many hours. Burned one impressive hole in the dirt - about 3' in diameter (roughly circular shaped) and 4 to 6 inches down. And it burned several smaller holes where it jumped. There was over a foot of snow on the ground, so it wasn't dry at all. Where the wire was, it melted the snow, and somehow burned into the soil. There were flames coming out of the hole. The cops closed the street and we waited a long time for Con Ed to 1) shut off the power and 2) an even longer time to fix it. It was a big ice storm and there were outages all over the place.

I still don't understand how dirt burns. All the grass was long gone, yet flames would still come out periodically. Simply amazing.

Ed

Go ahead and play with the downed wires. At least you won't be around beating off while you type with one hand.

I have worked with high voltage. A 10 KV DC power supply for three 65 KW Klystrons at WACX TV on their 5 MW EIRP UHF TV transmitter in Orange City Florida. I worked around a 2 MW RADAR at Ft. Rucker Alabama. Lots of 480 VAC three phase circuits at 100 amps or more. I learned to respect high voltage, something you seem unwilling to do. You rarely live through the first mistake, but in your case I am past the point of caring. Just don't do it where you'll splatter your blood and guts on innocent people when you go for that flaming death. You might even make the news as the local "Flaming idiot of the week".

There is a simple physical law. "Electricity takes the path of least resistance, most resistance, and everything in between."

Being in between a HV line and ground can make you dead. Hypothetically, as well as actually, dead.

no there isn't. it's not needed. all load currents are accied in the three phase conductors.

There is an earth wire run between the tops of the pylons (for lightning protection) but that doesn't carry any power currents.

I've not heard any stories of that happening here, still used AFAIK.

Bye. Jasen

Did you read that page? It states what i said, that they are not effecient, with up to half the voltage dropped in the return path. Not practical in anything but the smallest loads, and illegal in the US.

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You aren't trained for anything other than dancing and holding out your tin cup as your owner cranks the handle on his organ. I already told you that I no longer care what happens to you, but others are reading the thread that need to know the dangers. I've been hit wit 26 KV at a low current and it hurts like hell. I didn't touch anything, there was a pinhole in the insulation and it arced to my arm. Enjoy your first shock, but you better hope and pray it isn't your last. The only one here with an ego problem is you. Numerous people with HV experience have tried to explain the dangers, but you won't listen. Good bye. Go back under your bridge with the other trolls and fairies.

On Sat, 15 Jul 2006 04:44:50 GMT, in message , ehsjr scribed:

Precisely why the utilities shut off the breakers and disconnects before messing with downed lines. Even with a hotstick, proper ANSI boots and gloves, and full knowledge of step potential, a worker could go poking at the line and it could snap around anywhere. You could put your eye out with that thing.

==================================== This is where both sides let loose their armies to engage each other. Ulimately, one will lose, and be declared the loser.