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Old 11th Sep 2017, 9:31 pm   #25
Biggles
Rest in Peace
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Hexham, Northumberland, UK.
Posts: 2,234
Default Re: Memories and other stories from Pye etc PMR engineers.

After one particularly troublesome install with funny vehicle wiring colours (don't you just love 'em?), I went away quite pleased that I had done a good job. However I got a call the next day saying that all was well until it got dark and the lights were switched on. The radio went off. I went back to fix it and found that the "earth" on the fuseboard was in fact the positive supply to the headlights. It gave a nice zero ohms to earth through all the lights in the vehicle and I think? may have been brown in colour. Anyway, it went to +24V when the lights were on, and the isolated dropper/radio then had zero volts across it, and promptly went off. I have also had colleagues drill through fuel and water tanks, through spare tyres, and all the rest, thankfully it hasn't happened to me, although it has been a near miss on more than one occasion. We once had a customer who ran a large arable farm in the borders and I was asked to sort out his PMR system. He was impressed when I happily set up a little temporary workbench with my Marconi 2955 in the corner of a dusty shed and tested all his even dustier radios. I was tired out after jumping into all the vehicles, including a combine harvester. That was a first for me.
Alan.
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