>When you test the insulation of a long spool of cable (one end connected to
>a power source and the other open), when you disconect it from the power
>source and leave it open the transient efect can creat a surge at one end
>of the cable (the one connected with the power source). As the cable is
>open at both ends this surge travels from one end to the other (as a
>reflectd wave) until all its energy is exausted by the cable losses. If you
>have a good quality cable this energy can stay there for quite a while.
>If we are talking about high voltage cables (energy transportation lines),
>this efect can kill pepople toutching the cable days after it has been
tested.
>The only safe way to avoid this is to conect the cable to a correctly
>adapted load until all residual energy gets exausted before stocking the
>cable.

Are you saying that the resistance of the cable is so low that a signal can
bounce along the unterminated transmission line for _days_ without
undergoing significant attenuation?  (If so, wouldn't that essentially be a
superconducting tuned transmission line oscillator?)


Isn't it _much_ more likely that the cable (I'm assuming we're discussing
coax or two conductor cable) is acting simply as a capacitor?  After all,
what's two conductors seperated by an insulator?


newell