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Bob Hocking remembers one Musketball track particularly well: email to PD, 06 March 2007
"I had only two techs on my shift; they shall remain unnamed.
The calibration and bore-sight checks were complete and we were waiting for AOS. Suddenly there was a flash and a loud bang followed by a clatter of contactors as the whole radar shut down. A shocked tech emerged from the receiver section. His face was black and he was still clutching a pair of pointed nose pliers now about an inch shorter than they had been. I asked him what he had been doing.
It turned out he had decided to replace a voltmeter on the load centre panel. As he reached around the back of the panel with a nut gripped in the pliers he had shorted one of the few circuits in the radar not protected by a local circuit breaker. The main critical power breaker had tripped. I won't repeat my comments.
I raced downstairs and reset the breakers. The Q-6 did the right thing by us and we supported the track OK. The guy was quite upset, he couldn't understand my objection to his doing non-urgent maintenance at such a critical time."
