Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: 21 May 91 22:17:11 GMT From: Brian Kantor Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: RF Detonation Message-ID: Organization: The Avant-Garde of the Now, Ltd. Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 388, Message 2 of 12 Lines: 25 My RCA TacTec walkie burned my wrist one day when I managed to accidently brush my watch band against the battery charging contacts, and the high current through the resulting short circuit heated up the metal band quite quickly. I can easily believe that a bullet could be detonated in much the same way. My Motorola and GE radios cannot do that, for they have a blocking diode inside the battery pack that prevents the battery from discharging through the external contacts -- clearly a better design. In the early days of two-way radios, some vacuum-tube mobile transmitters used motor-generator sets ("dynamotors") to produce the 600 or so volts needed in the power output stages. In one memorable incident, a CHP officer transmitted while his car was being fueled, and the motor brush sparks ignited the gasoline fumes in his trunk (where the radio was installed), blowing the trunk lid off the car and ruining the overhanging gas station canopy. The radio continued to work, of course. Brian