• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

Safety Practices, General and Ultra-High Voltage

The answer one could expect 🙂

Still it would be nice that if one is in the room (being one of the more influential members) and agrees he/she actually follows up to the agreements. Otherwise making agreements is just theatre.
As you are in Germany where “U” is used and I am in the United States where it does not seem to be used, I just don’t see an argument of validity.

Pretty sure if I used “U” in an English language popular magazine it, if not edited out, would confuse most folks.
 
Lower case, no italics u is already in use, in pro-sound signal voltage dB reference. dBu is referenced to the voltage that makes 0dBm at 600 Ohms. Still commonly used in some circles, often in a noise context. Just to muddy the waters for Friday night entertainment.

All good fortune,
Chris
 
USA is an influential member that had a part in defining, designing and agreeing on the International standards. It has nothing to do with Germany being the exception as it just isn't. Normally the majority is not the exception. As an example the high voltage regulations here are adapted to USA regulations and are even in English. They appeared complete especially with regards to safety and also well thought out so why do things twice? As a result the "electroburka" was a new PPM and "arc flash" the worst thing we should fear. Countries organize and standardize stuff to make it better, safer and more clear for all. The education system follows up teaching the agreed stuff so all learn how to do things the agreed way. Companies also follow up and keep up with regulations, methods and safety by means of state issued papers all according the defined standards. Employees need to refresh certificates and reeducate every 3 years to keep up. There have been given a few examples where it is clear that USA also uses or agrees on using that same standards. Sometimes. When it suits them.

The confusion is agreeing on A but doing B and then denying/ignoring A. Or education.
 
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USA is an influential member that had a part in defining, designing and agreeing on the International standards. It has nothing to do with Germany being the exception as it just isn't. Countries organize and standardize stuff to make it better for all. There have been given a few examples where it is clear that USA also use that same standards.

The confusion is agreeing on A and doing B. Or education.
I am afraid you are getting close to humor. There certainly may have been USA participation in the standard, but that does not guarantee or imply common usage.

I will concede the use of “U” when I see it in American technical articles.

This is a big country. I even have one southern fellow who occasionally works for me who often forgets when he talks to me that I am only fluent in “Yankee” English and have great difficulty understanding his normal “accent!”
 
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JP,

Occasionally at technical meetings I “do” lunch with some friends who are German engineers. They like to bring along a younger engineer or two so they can be exposed to the concept there actually can be engineers who are not German.

What amazes me is they are not just fluent in English, but have very little or no accent.

Or in other words it is enjoyable discussing with you a minor labelling issue. Quite simply understanding the usage and differences in labeling will be of real use in the future.
 
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Back to a bit more on topic. One fellow I know acquired an extremely large Tesla coil. After the mandatory playing with it he experienced a neurological issue. His visual perception of the world turned sideways. After a thorough medical exam he was told they had no idea what caused it or if it was treatable. Fortunately after a few months he returned to normal.

I was able to tell him I was aware of another case where after exposure to a high voltage AC field the same thing happened.

Not sure if anyone else here has heard of such an occurrence.

My favorite semi-tale is of the dairy farmer who after a very high voltage line was run across his property notice his cows were unhealthy, losing weight and producing much less milk. After veterinary treatment yielded no improvement, he sold the herd and bought a new one. Same thing happened to the new cows. He ended up having to sell the farm.

The new owner noticed the cattle would only drink from the water troughs with great hesitation and only briefly. His investigation showed the water pump feeding the trough had a short and was producing a voltage into the water.

Fixing the shock source and the cattle went back to drinking enough and producing milk. Turned out the new high voltage line had nothing to do with any problems.

Moral of these tales is pay attention and stay safe around electric stuff!
 
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Here a man I know bought a house and forest/land with 400 kV poles on it. Then someone of some safety board came over and told him the house was close and his forest too close to the 400 kV lines and leukemia could be a possible result from long term exposure. They offered him to buy the property.

I have been to numerous industrial plants/installations where very strong electromagnetic fields occurred and always was educated that it may cause cancer and other trouble. Once I visited a gigantic water cooled 40 MW rectifier and had a hard time feeling OK because of the extremely strong field. 77,000 Ampère! OK, 77 kA it is. OK to you 77 ka 😀
 
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Philips always used V or v (without italics) instead of U for voltage. According to their 1982 diode databook, their letter symbols were based on IEC publication 148. I have no access to IEC publication 148, so I can't check whether they were telling the truth.
 
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