I was looking at some schmetics in which the power line switch is in the B- side. In electricity the switch is in the HOT side. The reason for this is that if a person touches something with the power off, the resulting voltage will NOT be felt. Now---- the switch be in the same place for radios? If a person touches a chassis with the set turned off they would get a NASTY, NASTY shock & maybe be even fatal!!!! Shouldn't radio receivers be the same as house wiring?? I was reading fun with tubes & caught this on the illistrated circuit drawing. The switch is in the B- side!! On older sets the plug can be reversed but with these newer sets & polorized plugs that can't be done. Anybody got ANY ideas? When I was young I used to take my sets out to the garage or barn to listen to when doing chores. Once I got a HELL of a shock in the barn. Then I got a HELL of a shock in the garage. Dad asked me why I didn't do this all the time. I told him why & he told me DON'T touch the chassis, just the knobs which were plastic. Turn the set OFF & carry by the case, then you should be OK. It really scared me for a while! The main question is why do radio mfgs. put the switch in the B- side & put the switch in house wiring in the HOT side?

Hi

You can rewire a radio so switch is on hot side of the line.

There is a reason for switching B- side. A switch is part of the volume control. The volume control has low level audio. If the switch is on B-, ground side, there wouldn't be AC noise near the control.

Switching B- side keeps AC hum away from audio.

Norm

: I was looking at some schmetics in which the power line switch is in the B- side. In electricity the switch is in the HOT side. The reason for this is that if a person touches something with the power off, the resulting voltage will NOT be felt. Now---- the switch be in the same place for radios? If a person touches a chassis with the set turned off they would get a NASTY, NASTY shock & maybe be even fatal!!!! Shouldn't radio receivers be the same as house wiring?? I was reading fun with tubes & caught this on the illistrated circuit drawing. The switch is in the B- side!! On older sets the plug can be reversed but with these newer sets & polorized plugs that can't be done. Anybody got ANY ideas? When I was young I used to take my sets out to the garage or barn to listen to when doing chores. Once I got a HELL of a shock in the barn. Then I got a HELL of a shock in the garage. Dad asked me why I didn't do this all the time. I told him why & he told me DON'T touch the chassis, just the knobs which were plastic. Turn the set OFF & carry by the case, then you should be OK. It really scared me for a while! The main question is why do radio mfgs. put the switch in the B- side & put the switch in house wiring in the HOT side?
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There have been no sets made with the chassis connected directly to the line cord in about five decades. When these sets were new people had common sense and common sense meant not touching the insides of things that were plugged in. If you did you got shocked. Most people only did this once.

:There have been no sets made with the chassis connected directly to the line cord in about five decades. When these sets were new people had common sense and common sense meant not touching the insides of things that were plugged in. If you did you got shocked. Most people only did this once.

Right. The knobs kept people safe. My Crosley E-15 has metal knobs, but the center core of those knobs is Bakelite. That was an expensive knob to make, but perfectly safe to touch.
I've gotten a mild shock moving a plastic radio that was plugged in when I touched a chassis screw. A lot of them have the screws recessed in the body for that reason.

Some later models of table radios have the knobs secured to the cabinet with snap rings, so you can't pull the knobs off. Lots of built-in safety ideas. :>)

I would see no need to change the switching unless it was a shock box guitar amp. On those I would install a grounded cord and switch the hot.
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