[sci.electronics] "Stray Voltage" on 60 Minutes

phil@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Phil Howard KA9WGN) (04/10/91)

wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil (Will Martin) writes:

>There was a 60 Minutes segment the night of Sunday, 7 April, that dealt
>with the problems caused to several dairy farmers by a power-company-
>caused condition called "stray voltage". Unfortunately, this being mass-
>market TV, there was absolutely no coherent technical explanation of 
>what they were talking about. They used the "stray voltage" term roughly
>equivalently to saying "evil vapors" or some other archaic phrase to
>describe the cause of sickness. Does anyone on the net know the details
>of what this is all about, and can you post an explanation?

>(To those who ask "why is this on the hams list?", I say: a) because 
>I know of no other mailing list devoted to electrical/electronic
>topics, and b) because whatever these ill effects might be, the 
>mechanism described sounded a lot like what happens in a poorly-grounded
>ham shack, with RF appearing in unwanted places causing undesired
>effects; admittedly, they only were speaking of 60Hz and not RF in the
>program, but the situation appears to be parallel.)

The places could be sci.bio, sci.electronics, sci.physics, and maybe others
like talk.environment.  Hams DO read those groups as well.  I'll let those
in the other groups help narrow down where this topic should be discussed.
-- 
 /***************************************************************************\
/ Phil Howard -- KA9WGN -- phil@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu                              \
\ Lietuva laisva -- Brivu Latviju -- Eesti vabaks                             /
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jtchew@csa1.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW) (04/10/91)

>>There was a 60 Minutes segment the night of Sunday, 7 April, that dealt
>>with the problems caused to several dairy farmers by a power-company-
>>caused condition called "stray voltage". 

There is a hearty little thread on this subject on sci.skeptic, to which
I've directed followups.  Join us there with your technical expertise;
your open-minded yet healthily suspicious attitude; your outside data if
any; and, hopefully, your detailed knowledge (transcript, anyone?) of what 
exactly was said on 60 Minutes.  (I miss one or two episodes a year, and 
look what happens...

--Joe
"Just another personal opinion from the People's Republic of Berkeley"

aduncan@rhea.trl.oz (Allan Duncan) (04/12/91)

 wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil (Will Martin) writes:
 
>There was a 60 Minutes segment the night of Sunday, 7 April, that dealt
>with the problems caused to several dairy farmers by a power-company-
>caused condition called "stray voltage". Unfortunately, this being mass-
>market TV, there was absolutely no coherent technical explanation of 
>what they were talking about. They used the "stray voltage" term roughly
>equivalently to saying "evil vapors" or some other archaic phrase to
>describe the cause of sickness. Does anyone on the net know the details
>of what this is all about, and can you post an explanation?

I don't know of the situation in the area in question, but in some areas
of Australia the is a distribution called Single Wire Earth Return.
This uses a single phase conductor with the return path via ground.  At
each farm there is a pole-mounted step down transformer that provides
two-conductor single phase 240V that floats relative to the pole earth.
This system works well in areas with conductive soils - but would give
trouble if it was put in areas with dry sandy soil.  Maybe this is the
problem being discussed - a cheap but inappropriate distribution
system.
Allan Duncan	ACSnet	a.duncan@trl.oz
(+613) 541 6708	ARPA	a.duncan%trl.oz.au@uunet.uu.net
		UUCP	{uunet,hplabs,ukc}!munnari!trl.oz.au!a.duncan
Telecom Research Labs, PO Box 249, Clayton, Victoria, 3168, Australia.