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What happens when you touch a pickle to an AM radio tower

jeffgeerling.com

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Re: What happens when you touch a pickle to an AM radio tower

#111

Post by timr »

hermitcrab wrote: post #110
timr wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another thing to note, since people seem to be focusing on the RF aspect of this: there's 20-30 Amps running to the tower in this video. If your body is the connection to ground for a 20 Amp current, from any source, you're going to have a lot more to worry about than a burnt pickle (I guess it's cool that you'd make radio sounds while you died?) When they put the pickle/hotdog/whatever an inch away from the tower wi…

I had no idea that radio towers used that sort of ampage.

I might be misremembering the tower (i.e. I might be remembering the amperage for a 50kW tower), but they definitely do.

Amperage on a 6kW tower will still be more than enough to kill you.

Re: What happens when you touch a pickle to an AM radio tower

#114

Post by timr »

geerlingguy wrote: post #94
timr wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely, but this video is not that.

Same disclaimer: I'm not an expert on this... but I have been talking a lot about RF burns and arcing with RF engineers, and I think there's more nuance to this. It would be interesting to see the difference grounding a hot dog through 7 kW AC (60 Hz) and seeing any difference in internal heating and arcing. Maybe a topic to explore in another video—especially if I can get access to a transmitter manufacturer's testi…

Sure. I'm not trying to suggest that it isn't a factor at all, just that it's not what's ablating the hot hot dog/pickle in this example. I wouldn't want to sit next to a working AM tower and have lunch or anything.

Re: What happens when you touch a pickle to an AM radio tower

#115

Post by kmbfjr »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #86
JCM9 wrote: post #62

For folks wondering why these sort of videos (there are lots on YouTube) always focus on AM towers: 1. On AM the radio energy literally pulses (the amplitude modulation) and thus the arcs of plasma will pulse too thus creating the audio noise. AM has a carrier wave that’s constant but the two sidebands of signal pulse from zero energy at silence to more power the louder the sound being transmitted. FM signals broadca…

Why would we want aviation radios to operate in AM? Is it just that we standardized on AM before the 60s, it works well enough, and migrating would require a worldwide effort? Or is there some interesting advantage to AM for planes? Maybe superior range?

Audio loudness is correlated to signal strength, so it is clear a very strong signal is from a source that is close, important to know in aircraft.

Two transmissions will produce a heterodyne (whine) due to the offset of carrier frequencies, so you hear both and the tone to know there are two transmitters. On FM, you’d hear only one, the strongest who captured your receiver.

Re: What happens when you touch a pickle to an AM radio tower

#116

Post by geerlingguy »

timr wrote: post #111
hermitcrab wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had no idea that radio towers used that sort of ampage.

I might be misremembering the tower (i.e. I might be remembering the amperage for a 50kW tower), but they definitely do. Amperage on a 6kW tower will still be more than enough to kill you.

16A on this full array, as measured by the RF ammeter feeding the phasor in the transmitter building.

Re: What happens when you touch a pickle to an AM radio tower

#118

Post by kallistisoft »

xattt wrote: post #33
ljf wrote: post #6

I mentioned over dinner at my parents house (about 20 years ago) that I'd read that running 240v through a gherkin would cause it to glow - and pretty much as soon as dinner was over, my father and I had the experiment set up. Gherkins and even pickled onions glowed brilliantly. I set up a basic site to share the video we'd taken and details of the experiment, and shared it to B3ta. Sadly all lost to time.

I see a similar comment at the end of the original article that mentions that pickles incandesce. Is it true incandescence or is it just internal arcing?

Many many moons ago I connected a pickle to a 10kv transformer - in that case at least it was definitely the result of arcing :)

Re: What happens when you touch a pickle to an AM radio tower

#119

Post by JohnMakin »

gosub100 wrote: post #84
JohnMakin wrote: post #39

I always wonder if there would be any pain in the death that results from touching one of these. I’d assume it’d be instant from the electricity traveling through your heart - or would you just burn up more slowly?

it may not kill you. the ways that electricity harms the body is unpredictable. Depends on things like bare skin vs gloves, humidity, sweat, what phase your heart is in at that exact moment, and probably many more factors. since the voltage is oscillating very quickly, it _may_ not cause your muscles to lock up, so you _may_ just get the zap of your life and bounce off. Whereas other types (non-RF) electrocution caus…

All I’m reading from this is “electric shock - nature’s russian roulette.”

What you wrote makes sense from my layman’s understanding. thanks!

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