On Sun, 03 Apr 2005 19:21:21 -0600, Luke wrote:

On Mon, 04 Apr 2005 00:44:49 GMT,
wrote:

On Sun, 03 Apr 2005 16:50:03 -0600, Luke wrote:

Our TV reception, from a roof antenna, was intermittently flaky.
Trying to find the problem, I got a shock when I touched both the TV
F-connector and coax cable antenna lead. So I put a tester on and to
my surprise got a 75 volt reading.

DVD player around to plug it into all circuits. I also get ~30 volts
off the housing of an old stand mixer in the kitchen.

This isn't normal, is it?

NO. It's dangerous. It's gonna kill someone.

Ignore the illiterate hacks Matt and Turtle aka Weasel, and
get a licensed electrician in there NOW to find out what's going on,
before it kills you. You have neither the tools nor the training to
continue.

You either have a lifted neutral, or ground, and either one
can kill you, or burn your house down.

BTW - I'm a licensed Master Electrician, unlike the plumber
and the hack mentioned above.

I'll ignore the personal attacks ;-).

I didn't attack you, only the hacks who gave you 'advice' that
could kill you. All things being equal , I would just as soon not
have that happen ;-)

I know I'm beyond my abilities
on this, which is why I asked, and as you suggest I was going to call
an electrician first thing tomorrow morning. Just curious, what's a
"lifted" ground or neutral, and why do all other appliances (computer,
clocks, radio, etc.) seem to work okay?

'Lifted' is a trade slang term we use to describe it whan a
connection is no longer made. IE, the ground or neutral connector has
come loose, or 'lifted off', where it's supposed to be. This may be
at the panel board ( breaker box ) or it may be elsewhere.

What else works or doesn't work could have many answers, such
as 'their design', 'are they single or double insulated ?' ( IE,
designed to need or not need a ground ), hwo are the constructed
internally, etc. You low-signal ( AV ) gear is going to be much more
sensitive because of the very high signal amplification built into the
deisgn of each one. Taking a signal from source to line level ( IE
..75 V ) is a BIG gain stage. Any noise, stray voltage, etc, can be
amplified along with it.

The key tell-tale issue here, though, is not your AV stuff -
it's that, PLACED IN COMBINATION with that kitchen mixer. That tells
me that there's something pandemic to the electrical system of your
house, not just a flaky TV or such. The most common source of this
kind of thing ( in a properly wired house ) is the panel board or
service entrance or grounding system ( ground rod ). In an
incorrectly wired house, all bets are off.