Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!lethe!yunexus!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!masscomp!ocpt!tsdiag!davet
From: davet@tsdiag.ccur.com (Dave Tiller N2KAU)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Flouro with a mind of its own!!
Message-ID: <1329@tsdiag.ccur.com>
Date: 8 Jan 91 18:11:46 GMT
References: <1991Jan7.060704.6882@syacus.acus.oz>
Distribution: sci.electronics
Organization: Concurrent Computer Corp. Oceanport NJ
Lines: 28

In article <1991Jan7.060704.6882@syacus.acus.oz> rickj@syacus.acus.oz (Rick Jones) writes:
-
-Hi,
-
-Last week my wife called me into our son's room complaining that she
-couldn't turn off his flourescent light.  After my initial reaction of
-wondering just how many cylinders she was really firing on, I went and
-investigated.
-
-The light, even when turned off at the switch, continued to flicker to full
-brightness and then die again, repeating this every twenty seconds or so.
-
-I pulled the switch out and tested it.  All OK!  What causes this type of
-aparent aberration?  Another side effect was that, if I touched the tube, I
-received the same sort of response that you'd expect from a plasma display
-tube, with the light radiating to my fingertips.
-
-Can anyone shed any light on this (pardon the pun)?

Do you have any strong radio transmitters around your area?  Airport radar,
military stuff, amateur radio?  It sounds like a high ambient EM field is
ionizing the gas in the tube.  (My 5W handheld on 144MHz will light a three
foot tube.)
-- 
David E. Tiller         davet@tsdiag.ccur.com  | Concurrent Computer Corp.
FAX:  201-870-5952      Ph: (201) 870-4119 (w) | 2 Crescent Place, M/S 117
UUCP: ucbvax!rutgers!petsd!tsdiag!davet        | Oceanport NJ, 07757
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