7/6 & 7/7/00 - For the last two days, I have made a serious effort to obtain a 'pole pig'. I even used my position on the Fire Department to try and influence people. I guess I am not that young cute kid anymore. And besides, these days people and companies are so liability conscious that they don't want to deal with an individual on things that can cause death and destruction. Most of what I found on the web were coilers asking in newsgroups "Where can I get a pole pig?" or "What is a pole pig?" There are a couple of surplus places I may have to check out.

I did check with the two major utilities in this area: UI or United Illuminating and NU - Northeast Utilities. Both stated that they don't deal with the public and that if they do remove a unit from service it is placed back in inventory or scrapped if it is un-repairable. The folks at SNEW - South Norwalk Electric Works were real helpful, though, the engineer I spoke with really wanted to help. They had no transformers that I could use (they are upgrading from a 4,000 Volt feed to 13,800 Volts) He was kind enough, however, to direct me to two of their suppliers. I will let you know how I make out on this pursuit.

10/00 - I think the pole pig will wait. I will use something lower current to test the coil for now and make the final purchase when all else is done. Since I have decided to go with a DC tank circuit, I have plenty of High Voltage supplies to use for test. More on this when I am actively pursuing it.