In Austria, everyone was hoping for the restrictions to be eased off after Easter but it's not looking good right now, even though the figures look very promising to me - today the increase rate of infections went below 10% for the first time since the outbreak! The progression is essentially linear instead of exponential as they'd initially feared. The government on the other hand keeps talking about implementing even stricter measures, without actually naming them. Everything's closed except for essential production, supermarkets and small grocery stores, drug stores, pharmacies, car and bicycle repair stores and tobacconists. Public transport has been cut down to weekend timetables and people are advised to avoid it. The city of Vienna is sending out 50 Euro taxi vouchers to all senior citizens, little sense as that makes. As of Wednesday, masks will be required in supermarkets, we'll see if they can actually find enough to enforce that.

Oddly enough, construction sites haven't been shut down yet, on the contrary. One of the largest contractors closed all their sites but re-opened them late last week.

You'll find that testing and inspection as done in Europe isn't really a thing in the US - inspections are mainly limited to visual inspection and functional testing. No IR testing, no PFC/PSC testing, no Zs, nothing. I think there's an older thread on this board on this very topic.

What do we trust or not regarding safety and markings?

I have marked with red those institutions where I have generally found good quality, so I usually trust things with those marks. The other ones may be OK, I just have no experience with those.

So the 2 more that is not approval markings: The CE marks.

CE China Export are just that, and almost equal to The CE from Europe. The European CE was ment to be a quality mark, but it is (based on strict rules) just a mark that tells you that the maker states it to be according to regulations.

The "Ground fault remover" has none of these, and the most important, the visual inspection and we always shold do does not tell me about more than medium minus quality. Since I don't want my house or where I am to burn down I would prefer this and equal units to be banned.

When traveling abroad I use to take a power strip frome home and change the plug to the standard in the country I am visiting. Regarding voltage and frequency I have to pick what to bring, usually it is phone, pc and shaver, all those are universal so it is no problem. Sometimes I bring shoe dryer, and that has to be for the right voltage. The wattage are usually of 15 W so it is no big loads.

Now you're playin with me Mike !!


My grandkids sometimes can't believe what I don't know. But I'm sure I know a lot of things they need to learn.

Bill

I take it that when you move the disconnect handle to the top, it shorts out on the wire and turns everything off?

Pole climbing over here in New Zealand was never really a thing.
If you needed to get up a pole carrying 400/230V lines, you used an extension- type
pole ladder.
The same if you needed access to the 11kV lines above the LV lines.

Once bucket trucks happened on the scene in the 80's, use of pole ladders was confined to line crews moving stuff on poles during pole change-overs and faults staff replacing pole-top fuses.

Considering that wooden poles here all have pole steps on them for the higher voltages, you just lean a pole ladder up against them and climb the pole that way.
However, bucket trucks have pretty much taken the need to climb poles at all, due to Health and Safety legislation.

Joe:

Yes, I think we are the “experienced” guys that have been around the block a few laps.

I prefer “experienced” as opposed to not spring chicken, but that’s no issue. Yes I have once or twice dropped in on MH in the last year+

I guess those of us who are still around need to start talking about something

In our downtown area a few years ago, the perimeter fence for a cell site was cut, and homeless folk were plugging phones into the HVAC service outlet on the outside of the building. Then an extension cord appeared and electric heaters were attempted as someone tried to build a camp along the fence.. They blew the breaker and that ended all the fun. That area was cleared of brush and is being gentrified, booting out the homeless camps.

We're still working, spreading out workers in the office and getting work-from-home setups to work. Our company's VPN capacity is strained.

Our city isn't totally locked-down yet. I expect my movement as a broadcast engineer will not be restricted. Someone's got to keep the information wheels turning.

Watching a 34-year-old NASCAR race yesterday was...interesting. I did see some live sports over the weekend...Australian Rules Football played week one with empty stadiums. They then announced a suspension of the season. My wife and I found a 30-day trial of Acorn TV streaming video...lots of British shows, with a little Oz sprinkled in. We're binge-watching Brokenwood Mysteries right now, which Trumpy might have seen an episode or two, since it's produced in NZ.

I haven't seen that device but I was thinking how easy it would be to build something like it. If I had a hearing impaired friend who needed one, the intercom interface would be the only unknown. Doorbell voltage is either there or it isn't. Telephone has a huge difference between DC Tip & Ring and AC Ringer. The intercom is the only thing that I didn't just design in my head. I would opto couple all three to drive super bright LEDs on the annunciator.
Joe

Good points. I do plan on talking with legal people....IF I even decide to go this way. I could also just putter along doing the occasional small job and service work by myself, somehow that is looking like a much more stress free option.

I'll take a few rolls
CRS Electric, Chris R Shatterly
744 1/2 Adams St.
Albany, Ca 94706



Thanks

I suspect the same formula that lets you use a smaller ground in 250.122 for sizes over 10ga cable (ungrounded conductors) was extended down to the "small conductors" in the 50s. My 75 book has a table that looks like 250.122 except it is 250-95.
Now if I go back to the 1959 code, I find the smoking gun. I looked to see exactly when it changed. 1965 still has the 16ga wire but the 68 code has it as full circuit conductor size for 14-10 so it must have been in the 68 ROP.

Poland seems to have used the pre-harmonised German system too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPPBoZ2LFkM

I had a PSA test in 2005 & my PSA test number had increased. After more tests, the discovered that I had prostate cancer. I had my prostate removed. I am now 15 years cancer free! I was lucky that they caught it early.
GET Checked.