The IDEAL INDUSTRIES INC. 61-164 SureTest Circuit Analyzer uses the 60 cycle 120 volt AC of the circuit under test. It is specifically made for testing the quality of the grounding path on installed electrical circuits. I would have to make up a couple of metal boxes with the receptacle on on one end of the 100 foot roll and a short cord set on the other end. Stick the AC cable into each of the boxes without removing it from the reel, make up the AC cable connectors tool tight, connect the cable cord and ground pigtail from the box to the conductors and the receptacle to the conductors and ground pigtail from the box at the other using a torque screw driver, the side clamping terminals on the receptacle and a UL listed terminal device at the cord end, run the test. Except for removing the 2 boxes and other parts of the test add ons I'd be done.
Funny story about that you might enjoy. I was installing new exit lights in a rather old government building many years ago and I had gotten their early on my first day to get a look at the plans and specifications so as to orient myself to the job. The specifications said very prominently that the exit lights furnished were to be standard Edison medium base screw shell lamp holders and the new arrow and EXIT lenses were to be green. The company owner had more than enough exit fixtures left over from a project which got idled by a financial slump before it was finished. The left over ones did everything but cook your breakfast. They had a built in battery back up with a built in charger. They had adapter plates already provided for those huge octagonal concrete embedded boxes. They had your choice of Red or Green lenses included. They were much nicer than the ones that the US General Services Administration (GSA) had specified. I had done a 2 year block of alternative power work by this point in my life so I was familiar with T rated switches. When I saw that Tungsten rated switches had been specified for the few of the emergency lights that were switch controlled I became concerned. Here comes the job foreman down the hall I was working in so I ask "Ronny has anyone checked what the source of the power to these emergency lights is.” You see I didn't know that the outside superintendent had just chewed him up over a small over order issue and that he was in an extremely bad mood. He answers "Just shut the F up and put em on the wall." The next day he gave me my assignment and I nodded my head. He looks at me and asks "Your not talking to me are you." I shook my head no. "It's about yesterday isn't it?" I shook my head yes. He mutters "Well be that way then. Get to work." Off I went and didn't say a word to him for the rest of the 2 weeks that I worked for him. Months go by. I'm sitting in the ready room of the firehouse I volunteered at. We had a shared border with the city in which the government building was located and it seemed that every fire called in for the boundary street was always announced on either jurisdictions radio channel as "Across the street from ### boundary street. Report of a house on fire..." That meant that the fire department that was announcing that call was not due to respond. The side of the street which was "Across the street from" was always in the other departments jurisdiction. For that reason we monitored the city channel along with the county channel and the channel of the adjacent county continuously. I'm sitting their in the ready room watching some movie; I really did know better. You never get to see the end of the movie at the firehouse; and the city radio opens with “Street Box. REICHEL BOX 1735 the ****** west entrance many phone calls smoke on all floors. reports of multiple exits blocked by fire." Then he reads the assignment and gets the answer responding from each unit. As soon as he's done the radio says "Battalion 2 to radio advise incoming units to exercise extreme caution. Power failure in this area traffic lights are inoperative." One minute later. "Engine ## on scene smoke showing from multiple levels Have the first due special service run multiple electrical leads up the east stairway for smoke ejectors and lights." Five minutes later. "Battalion 2 to radio I'm returning all units except the first 2 engines and first 2 trucks for overhaul. We had a multiple floor electrical fire with several exit lights on fire and dripping burning plastic but the circuits been de-energized by the building's operating engineers and we'll be clearing in about an hour."
Now that you point that out I wonder why we didn't find any burned out branch circuits, at least not that I heard about. The branch circuits were all in Rigid Metal Conduit embedded in each decks concrete so those were certainly well grounded. That was the reason that I mentioned those very large octagonal boxes that most electricians call deck boxes.
