-> Easily done. The transformer has two independent secondary windings
-> on each leg of the iron core. A half winding on Red phase is series
-> connected to a similar half winding on Yellow. And so on. This gives
-> 7 terminals- the star point, and three phases [the junctions, plus
-> three more that are shifted 30 degrees to the former.  Presto! Six
-> phases.
Easy for YOU to say.....  I've read this about six times now and
every time I get a little more confused....  I'm worrking on it though.
-> Hey, I was a teenager. I had other things on my mind!
I'll bet!  
-> A rectifier that lost its balls too often was due for
-> maintenance of the anodes, or of the vacuum pump.
I hear THAT!
-> The Sydney Harbour Bridge is insulated from the rail tracks that
-> carry 1500v dc trains across it. For good reason, maybe you will work
-> that out!
I understand that PERFECTLY!  I 'spect it's either that or bond it every
few feet.  (Which would still make the bridge 'hot' to everything
else....)
-> I tell you true. Sorry I never worked on the gear but I was told that
-> the noise level was spectacular.
I can believe THAT too!  
-> 50 Hz is no great achievement,
I guess not, considering....  Only four poles at 1500 RPM?
-> A HOMEPOWER option- Free Loader. Used by [very few] utilities to
-> power tower top aircraft warning lights, in isolated spots.
Did you HAVE to bring up this subject Alec? 
Every year we have to deal with this and listen to all the urban legends
from a guy who's sister's husband's cousin did it without electrocuting
himself.  BUT of couse got caught and sentenced to cranking the local
generator by hand......
-> An insulated  conductor run beneath, and well clear of, a HV line
-> conductor will receive AC power thru air capacitance.
Or inductance or SOMETHING!  Suffice it to say it comes HOT!
-> down to a safe voltage and rectified to charge a battery there is
-> free energy.
But not MUCH!  Certainly not enough to be worth all the time, danger,
and trouble.  (Unless you were way the hell out in the boondocks and had
no other reasonable source of power.)
-> No power Co would agree to you doing this though. And you would
be -> foolish to run your wire too near the HV wires.
No, but the reason would be that they were trying to keep a potential
customer ALIVE!  No power company would care crap about such a thing
except that since it's probably their poles and their right-of-way it'd
be their liability if you got terminally electrocuted. 
As I pointed out to someone on another echo recently, they have
literally HUNDREDS of similar LEGAL attachments to their poles which do
the same thing except that they're all carefully bonded to prevent
someone getting an unpleasant shock.  Insulator leakage amounts to
substantially more 'losses' than anyone could 'steal' with a long wire.
Those of us who've been intimately involved with the shocks involved
with Cable TV or Phone line construction will testify that the juice is
there, (I had a cable flip over and hit me in the MOUTH once that
jangled my teeth for a week!) but even with a mile of insulated
conductor and 250-300 Vac MEASURED voltage there's no appreciable POWER
available.  (Under 7200 volt three phase distribution lines.)
-> short length of insulated wire. The antenna wire would need to be
-> kept grounded until the installation was finished. Some rather fancy
-> protective
The power company uses a thing called a "Travelling Ground Block" which
is just a roller gadget with a GOOD ground attached, when they're
installing new conductors beside energized ones.  (It also helps if
someone manages to 'slap' the new conductor against the original!)
Now we have to listen to all the old wives tales though........ 
Do you have any HVDC transmission lines in Oz?    We're purported
to have a three million jolt one somewhere...... "Out West"  
 ^..^
--- FidoPCB v1.5 beta-'j'
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