We made a hot dog talk with RF [video]

#1

Post by geerlingguy » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 4:43 PM UTC

We made a hot dog talk with RF [video]
youtube.com

Re: We made a hot dog talk with RF [video]

#2

Post by gambiting » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 5:43 PM UTC

There's loads of videos of bored russian teenagers doing this with leafs and blades of grass held with their bare hands too, but yeah.....pretty cool. Only works with AM radio as far as I understand though.

Re: We made a hot dog talk with RF [video]

#3

Post by mock-possum » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 6:04 PM UTC

Wow the arc utterly obliterates the hot dog at the point of contact.

Re: We made a hot dog talk with RF [video]

#4

Post by biomcgary » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 7:01 PM UTC

Is the hot dog vibrating to produce sound or is the sound from hot dog derived plasma? The auditory frequency distortion seems minimal, so I'm betting plasma.

Re: We made a hot dog talk with RF [video]

#5

Post by geerlingguy » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 7:14 PM UTC

biomcgary wrote: post #4

Is the hot dog vibrating to produce sound or is the sound from hot dog derived plasma? The auditory frequency distortion seems minimal, so I'm betting plasma.

It's the plasma—the hot dog was just a convenient path for the energy to flow. The actual material vaporized pretty quickly, definitely don't touch a live AM tower while standing on the ground. And probably ever, unless it's locked out and de-energized! (Especially if you're not a radio engineer or tower climber.)

Re: We made a hot dog talk with RF [video]

#6

Post by garciasn » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 7:16 PM UTC

Don’t ever touch a tower.

Important safety tip, Egon; thanks.

Re: We made a hot dog talk with RF [video]

#7

Post by joecool1029 » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 7:25 PM UTC

gambiting wrote: post #2

There's loads of videos of bored russian teenagers doing this with leafs and blades of grass held with their bare hands too, but yeah.....pretty cool. Only works with AM radio as far as I understand though.

One such old example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMuJKsUjD_o

Re: We made a hot dog talk with RF [video]

#8

Post by chezball » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 7:45 PM UTC

Why in the world is the fence around that so short? This is nuts! I would have jumped that as a kid to climb the tower. Probably not in bare feet or the rain. It seems strange to not protect this better (yes, i know, kids are not supposed to be there, but kids are (properly) designed for finding trouble.)

Re: We made a hot dog talk with RF [video]

#9

Post by geerlingguy » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 7:58 PM UTC

chezball wrote: post #8

Why in the world is the fence around that so short? This is nuts! I would have jumped that as a kid to climb the tower. Probably not in bare feet or the rain. It seems strange to not protect this better (yes, i know, kids are not supposed to be there, but kids are (properly) designed for finding trouble.)

There's a small fence around each tower with signage indicating the RF danger. Then around the whole property there's a horse-height fence, with a locked gate. And around that there are a few miles of soggy farmland, so it's pretty low risk.

Site plans have to include certain safety precautions, and fence type, placement, height, etc. are all submitted to the FCC when a tower site is designed or rebuilt.

Re: We made a hot dog talk with RF [video]

#10

Post by 1letterunixname » Thu, Mar 28, 2024, 8:36 PM UTC

Related classics:

(2019) BigClive overclocks a 120v Presto hot dogger to 250v https://youtu.be/n2ZZbuOeNmw

(2019) Veratasium grape microwave plasma https://youtu.be/wCrtk-pyP0I

(2022) BigClive The dangers of microwave transformers https://youtu.be/FBeSKL9zVro

(2016) BigClive Electrocution risk of cheap USB chargers https://youtu.be/3Hdn0MuCK_0

(2020) ElectroBOOM proves 5G isn't going to give you cancer or eat your children https://youtu.be/i4pxw4tYeCU