am radio tower power
Why Hacker News recommends it
Shared as a curiosity showing that with enough power almost anything can demodulate AM radio.
What it is
A one-minute clip where an AM radio station can be heard through the arcing of a high-power transmitter tower.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2020 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Cites cranium · 2020-02 · on “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: [this video]
Cites PoachedSausage · 2020-06 · on “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: [this video]
Cites neurostimulant · 2020-06 · on “Toto’s “Africa” Played on Tesla Coils”
Also you can hear AM radio transmission if you short the tower: [this video] Electricity is both awesome and terrifying
Cites 1970-01-01 · 2022-03 · on “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. [this video] [LINK]
Cites ngcc_hk · 2022-04 · on “How is portable AM radio possible?”
[this 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 ?
Cites blincoln · 2023-08 · on “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? [this video] [LINK]
Cites jjoonathan · 2023-09 · on “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. [this video]