Sunday, April 16, 2017
Micro-Shocks (and QRP Power?) from Nearby High Voltage Lines (video)
I spotted this on Hack-A-Day. It caught my attention because many time, while riding my bike along the Washington and Old Dominion bike path, I have felt electrical shocks from the handlebars.
Now, before you all conclude that OM Bill is losing it and start suggesting that I wear an aluminum foil hat, realize that the bike path is directly under some seriously high voltage power lines. And that esteemed UK newspaper "The Daily Mail" confirms that these shocks are, as the kids say, a thing.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2655190/Cyclist-told-grab-metal-bike-time-rides-overhead-power-line-gives-ELECTRIC-SHOCK.html
So think these Russian dudes are onto something. How long will it be before the QRP community starts exploiting this power source? (Please be careful about where you put the antenna!)
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ReplyDeleteKnown phenomenon: basic electrical theory, mutual inductance, air-cored transformer. Apocryphal story of NZ farmer pwering his milking shed from a line under a national-grid HV stretch across his property. Prosecuted due to inspection having revealed he used a pylon to support one end of his line. :)
ReplyDeleteThe Daily Mail isn't a newspaper, it is purveyor of absolute rubbish, so I wouldn't use that as any kind of reference.
ReplyDeleteStop wearing the Lycra Bill!
Well, signal-powered receivers have been around for a long time. For QRP you might need to store up the broadband input and then discharge for a brief keyed output. Now that huge-value electrolytics are available, this should be more practical than it was in the '30s.
ReplyDeleteOctober 1999 QST, pg. 66 has a letter from KB6FPW in the Silicon valley who gets free power from his local AM radio station, 2.5W 24/365 - and Bill: add drag chains to that bicycle machine
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