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Got wacked with 1300V DC once in 1981, while repairing a radio which was (almost literally) in the back yard of Hunter S. Thompson. (Yes, he was a strange cat back then, too.) I was working on a Low Frequency Radio Beacon, with (of course) all the safety interlocks removed looooo oonnnnn nnnnggggg gggg before I went to work there. There were two transmitters at each site; procedure was to put the functioning one on the air so the airplanes could use it, then work on the "dead" one. Here's the "STUPID" part. I put my hand into tht back of the LIVE one. About 1300V DC on the cathode of the HV rectifier tube. The radio shack looked for all the world like an outhouse, and the shock knocked me backwards into the wall where I just sat, dumbstruck, trying to figure out what had just happened. Luckily, my thumb was also touching the chassis at that moment, so the juice went in my left pointer finger and out my thumb. Left my arm numb up to the shoulder for about 2 minutes, then gradually the numbness wore off. I was still dazed and confused, however. (My wife thinks it's STILL affecting me.) That's the only time in my life I've seen my own bone. It blasted the flesh right off my finger, clean to the bone. Cauterized everything so it never bled, never even hurt. It's one of the few times I actually had someone with me, and he hauled me to the hospital in Aspen where they watched my ticker for a couple hours. After that, I made sure I only worked on those beacons in VFR weather when the aircrews didn't need them.
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