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am radio tower power

Aaron0 HN recommenders · 2020–2023
424K views · demo · evergreen · Uploaded 2016-02-05

A one-minute clip where an AM radio station can be heard through the arcing of a high-power transmitter tower.

Shared as a curiosity showing that with enough power almost anything can demodulate AM radio.

Electronics & circuit designEveryday physics & science demos

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7 comments from Hacker News

@cranium2020 · in “Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?”

I'm surprised nobody mentioned radio communication. The AM (Amplitude Modulation) transmission is even quite simple to understand and build. You can even create an electric arc between the ground and the transmitting tower as a cheap (and dangerous) receiver: [VIDEO]

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@PoachedSausage2020 · in “40 uses for Germanium Diodes (1950) [pdf]”

I'm not entirely sure what process is converting to sound, but the metal fence makes a great antenna and we are talking about 10's of feet from the antenna with 500 kW AM at 200 kHz going into it. It could actually have been arcing: [VIDEO]

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@neurostimulant2020 · in “Toto’s “Africa” Played on Tesla Coils”

Also you can hear AM radio transmission if you short the tower: [VIDEO] Electricity is both awesome and terrifying

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@1970-01-012022 · in “How is portable AM radio possible?”

Fun link time: With enough power, literally anything can become an AM radio. No tuning or filtering is required. [VIDEO] [LINK]

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@ngcc_hk2022 · in “How is portable AM radio possible?”

[VIDEO] [LINK] Do not understand the explanation. Just put a space will get the hn act. And copy is just right click or touch-hold. Am I missing something ?

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@blincoln2023 · in “Radio frequency hearing in humans and its effects (2003)”

I grew up in a house that was next door to a radio rebroadcasting facility, and we could definitely hear the radio station coming from the walls of our house sometimes, e.g. even their station identification so there was no ambiguity. I assumed it was the house wiring (mostly knob and tube) acting as an antenna. I'm reasonably sure that was AM, though. Was the sound you heard like either of these? [VIDEO] [LINK]

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@jjoonathan2023 · in “A scientific curiosity that happened to me”

Slope conversion is the hard part, once it's AM just about any energy conversion will do. abs(x) and |x|^2 are plenty nonlinear. [VIDEO]

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