We made a hot dog talk... with RF

[@GeerlingEngineering]

For more detail-and how we made this experiment safe(ish), see: www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2024/talking-hot-dog-gives-new-meaning-ham-radio

[@gorak9000]

I wonder how it affects the output power of the transmitter (and the reach of the signal), when you essentially short the output through a hotdog to ground? I'd imagine it must reduce the range by quite a bit as you're draining that power away from the antenna

[@maxgood42]

Big Clive made hotdogs sing to the freqency of mains feed. 🤣🤣🤣

[@hanklandsberg8247]

Would it be Kahn hotdog stereo or Harris hotdog stereo?

[@ChristoFerrus]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGq4gGyqo5mApqs

[@Praise___YaH]

Guys, The TRUE Savior HalleluYAH (Hallel u YAH) “Praise ye YaH” YaH is The Father (Genesis 1) YaH arrives via the TENT OF MEETING YaH was Who they Crucified for our sins YaH was Crucified on an Almond TREE Semitic (Moses) Isaiah Scroll (The Original Isaiah) Isaiah 42:8 I am YaH; that is my Name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols. Isaiah 43:11 I am YAH, there is no other Savior but Me. Isaiah 45:5 I am YaH, and there is none else.

[@featherpony]

If you use two hotdogs, you could have stereo AM radio

[@Tlavite]

cactus 😏

[@GeerlingEngineering]

Would a footlong hotdog give us HD AM radio?

[@lastotallyawesomebleach204]

If you use a bratwurst, you could probably pick up signals all the way from Germany.

[@dack42]

​@@GeerlingEngineeringNo, but if you touched it with your fingers it would be digital.

[@ИльяВитцев]

Putting the ham in HAM radio.

[@stevepoling]

Reminds me of those stories of people detecting powerful AM signals with their teeth fillings. My physics prof told about when WLW was broadcasting with an effective radiated power of a half-million watts: 1) Ohio drivers on US 42 would go past the tower, and start detecting AM via rusty junctions between body panels of the vehicle. Imagine cresting a hill late at night and hearing a radio hellfire preacher. 2) ionospheric skip propagated the signal to rural Canada whereupon chicken wire would catch the signal and rusty contact points would detect the signal. This interfered with egg production...

[@GeerlingEngineering]

WLW was in a class of its own. There's an excellent tour of WLW elsewhere on KZbin. Truly terrifying power there!

[@d0glesby]

@@GeerlingEngineering kzbin.info/www/bejne/eZOrm5atftSHn7s

[@thesciencefurry]

Yeah I think the mythbusters tested this.

[@BrianG61UK]

There are stories of farmers with buildings near multi hundred kW AM towers using the free RF power to heat the buildings! I'm not sure if I believe them, such a building wouldn't really be safe to use.

[@brothertyler]

Terry Davis doesn't seem so crazy now, does he?

[@Zanthum]

I've heard of RF burns referencing HAM equipment, but I didn't know it could be that bad from a broadcast tower. Damn.

[@stevepoling]

Think of your most illegal overpowered ham rig...

[@Arachnoid_of_the_underverse]

The Hams had its bacon

[@souta95]

Definitely! Ham radio in the US is a maximum of 1500 watts (most signals are 100 watts or less)... I believe in the video is KMOX, which is 50,000 watts. Even as little as 5 watts of RF burn will never let you forget it.

[@danl6634]

​@@souta95they're in day mode, about 6kw as they mention in another comment. Night mode would throw an arc a couple feet long.

[@barfbot]

ham is not an acronym

[@lalanotlistening]

This hotdog complies with Part 15 of the FCC rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) this hotdog may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this hotdog must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.

[@JeffGeerling]

Oh shoot! We forgot to check if the hot dog was FCC approved!

[@tingalleon]

This is amazing, guys. It's funny but also shows the dangerous reality of RF burns, which a lot of folks new to radio might not understand. I should forward this to the local Ham club to use as an example for test prep!

[@GeerlingEngineering]

Note: This tower is part of a 3-tower array, it is on day pattern, and putting out somewhere around 6 kW, so many AM towers are *way* more powerful! (Like KMOX, which we toured earlier this year, is 50 kW on one tower!)

[@notabagel]

You wanna be careful with ham clubs around transmitters, you saw what happened to their ham club in the video!

[@lazarus908]

I saw one and considered climbing it. Only didn't because of the cable running off it. Seemed like it might not be structurally sound if it needed that many cables holding it up. No idea if it was being actively used 😬😬 being shocked is like the thing I hate the most. Cannot believe I didn't know rf could cause burns/shock.....I've played music forever and haven't heard that about sound.

[@maudiojunky]

@@lazarus908 RF is not sound, it's electromagnetic radiation. The radio tower is a very high voltage, high frequency electrical source. The sound in the video happens as a consequence of the air ionizing with the same amplitude fluctuations as the audio signal (audio frequency) present on the AM carrier wave (radio frequency), so you hear the audible component that's normally demodulated by an electronic radio as the hot dog is burned by hot electric arcs. The sound is the pressure waves emitted in the air from the arcing event.

[@5Dale65]

In Poland we had a massive AM mast which had been the tallest thing in the world back then, before Burj Khalifa was built. It collapsed years ago unfortunately, but they were pumping over 1 megawatt of energy through it! There was a 110 kV high voltage power line to even power up the transmitter and all the facility around it. Imagine shorting out that thing! People living in vicinity said the mast literally played the radio station when it was humid. It was actually the stabilizing ropes, which had some insulators on them. When it was really humid or one of those insulators failed and an arc formed, it was screaming so loud you could hear the radio station even 10 kilometers away!

[@robertbradbury6962]

Try using a pickle. The electricity will excite the sodium ions and cause it to emit orange light.

[@GeerlingEngineering]

Not a bad idea!

[@MadScientist267]

There's plenty of salt in the hot dog... the orange you see is this sodium. It wouldn't look much different, other than the pickle being green, and would have a different funk lol

[@EdmundSampson-pd7vi]

The pickle would probably just explode

[@bubbleman2002]

@@EdmundSampson-pd7vi It will also create DEADLY pickle gas.

[@Rocketman88002]

Always a chemist in the crowd! Lol.....Welcome!!!

[@ProjectPhysX]

Technically this is a so-called plasma speaker. The amplitude-modulated electric arc on the hot dog rapidly heats up and displaces the air around it, which creates the sound. Plasma speakers are commonly built out of old TV flyback transformers.

[@Chris47368]

​@@RickGreenPhoto That sounded.... painfully horrific...

[@maudiojunky]

@@Chris47368 If you're not grounded then it's probably not going to kill you, but you will become part of the antenna. I imagine this would be more hazardous with a cell tower antenna, which typically operate at microwave frequency.

[@Chris47368]

@@maudiojunky Yeah....RF is just gnarly stuff to be directly exposed to in that way in general xD

[@ProdigalPorcupine]

@@maudiojunky Cell towers are nowhere near as dangerous as the antenna in the video. Microwaves are just radio waves like any other, and cell towers operate at orders of magnitude lower powers than this station. You will probably cook your eyeballs if you stand a few inches from a cell tower's antenna array for long enough, but you won't get instant, life threatening RF burns from them.

[@BrianG61UK]

@@maudiojunky I don't think a cell tower ever has multiple kW of power in it, but maybe I'm wrong.

[@AndrewBeeman007]

Electrical discharge machining, but with a hotdog as the element.

[@DJ-Daz]

Talking to food is harmless, when food talks to you it's time to seek help. Seek help! 😁😆

[@acubley]

Food only talks to me in ma belly. Especially Taco Hell...

[@DJ-Daz]

@@acubley 🤣

[@BasicPsychology101]

As a therapist, this disturbs me.

[@acubley]

As someone who should be in therapy, I concur.

[@nusermane1076]

I always thought it’s called ham-radio, not sausage-radio 🤭

[@GeerlingEngineering]

beef-radio!

[@acubley]

A talking cow that's not a FarSide comic!

[@BrianG61UK]

@@GeerlingEngineering Those hot dogs did not look like there was much real beef in them. Mostly bread and pink dye, I suspect.

[@RonLaws]

the sausages are mostly pork, so Ham radio still fits :-)

[@christopherleubner6633]

Hmm maybe try spam 🤔

[@Genesis8934]

I have a feeling ElectroBoom would find a way to touch it. (Or *APPEAR* to :P) Also rip dogs harmed in the making of this video.

[@Tomydirium]

We NEED a collab with ElectroBoom!

[@Mp57navy]

You'll be fine if you jump onto it.

[@CrystalStarscape]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/m6q5dYCAg5Wml5o Looks like he saw this comment.

[@CICatinga]

Back in 2002, I made my professional practices at a radio broadcast company here in my hometown. I visited one of the company’s AM transmitter facilities… was my first time inside of an AM transmitter facility. Then I noticed the antenna area was surrounded by a second fence… so I ask the chief engineer if I could have a close look to the antenna, but he told me about the danger of being near and if I touch the antenna I could get fry…. Didn’t believe him until he took a test rod and approaching a large leaf with the rod, the leaf started to get burned as talking…. A talking burning leaf touching a 50,000 W AM antenna…. Just amazing! Was the XED 1050 kHz AM in Mexicali, Mexico…. So, friends and viewers… the talking hot dog is not a trick… just as the talking leaf I saw ( and heard) it is true. Regards! 👍👍

[@Killer_Kovacs]

Does it speak German if you use a bratwurst?

[@frstwhsprs]

What about kielbasa, does it speak Polish?

[@LT.dans_new_legs]

Does it speak in a Midwestern drawl if you cook Sausage McMuffin?

[@celestialnubian]

It speaks in an Atlanta southern drawl if you use a hotwing.

[@eaglevision993]

If you use a Watermelon it speaks Jive. (German here, and I am not offended by the Bratwurst joke. So take it as an example.)

[@celestialnubian]

@@eaglevision993 I don't understand the context of your post. What is "Jive" and what is it's connection to watermelon?

[@ChristopherHailey]

Certainly an interesting way to show how modulation works! It does illustrate how those stories about fillings in people's teeth picking up radio stations could actually be true.

[@charlescarter3595]

"Standard hot dog, nothing special". My god man, It's a talking hot dog! The implications, the knowledge we can learn from them! ........ ( I was kinda high when I watched this.)

[@flyguy8791]

AM towers are terrifyingly impressive. As always thanks for giving us this peek at why they're dangerous!

[@tomselbeck]

That fence is waaaaaay to low haha

[@sometimesleela5947]

I'm surprised there aren't squirrel fragments littering the area.

[@rodschmidt8952]

@@sometimesleela5947 they aren't tall enough to touch the tower AND be grounded

[@sometimesleela5947]

@@rodschmidt8952 The (ceramic?) insulating support at the base between the ground straps and the tower looks to be about 14 inches. I guess most critters wanting to scurry up to go exploring would jump it, but any climbing would bridge it and get zinged. I regularly have to clean up squirrels from below the pole pig in my backyard,.

[@gregorydahl]

There is a taller fence around the short fence thing maybe

[@richards7909]

Surely this is the start of a new channel called Cooking with the Geerlings!

[@johnwiley8417]

I've got a tiny, cauterized hole through the skin of my right elbow that I got while taking an AM tower base current reading at my first station forty-two years ago. It was raining, and I wasn't paying enough attention. Good lesson, but I wish I'd seen this video beforehand.

[@radijoe]

I've met several tower workers who have been bitten or burned on AM towers. So many ways to get burned...

[@ericptaylor10]

LOL I love how he starts off with "well I've never done anything like this before" I don't think anyone has ever done anything like that before 😂

[@snipes_1138]

There's a old video called "Ukrainian radio - blyat waves" but it's a stick or something being used instead of a hot dog.

[@rdottwordottwo2286]

Need a taller fence!

[@sayori3939]

noo! how am i supposed to climb it if it's taller, i love messing with these towers

[@Der_Radiotechniker]

I love how well the hot dog demodulates the AM.

[@lightingkid2010]

Imagine touching the tower and then suddenly your hand starts playing let it go as it burns to a crisp.

[@rodschmidt8952]

"The heat is on... burning burning bur-ning" "When you're hot you're hot..."

[@achaerna.6662]

This was one of the most dangerous, but peacefully so videos I've seen on KZbin. No car crashes, no gunshots, no yelling, but still... pure tension

[@minus5m]

I'm so glad I saw this. I never thought you could get seriously get hurt just by touching a Antenna tower! Seems like they should be fenced off better than this..

[@nicksouthon1557]

I had heard of the 'Cat's Whisker' radio before, but is this known as a 'Dog's Wiener' radio?

[@carnage77]

My father was an Artillery officer in the 60/70s . It was quite common for lads to use the packet Radio antenna to warm mres. Foil wrapped ones would get hot in seconds.

[@OpenCarryUSMC]

MRE’s weren’t issued until 1981

[@carnage77]

@@OpenCarryUSMC British were supplied with individual wrapped daily rations . Dunno about you lot in murricah.

[@steviebboy69]

I watched the video before I read the description above and I would have thought it was way more than 10 KW, My local AM radio station is 5 KW and it has 2 antenna connected they did this years ago. This is a local radio station 3NE in North East Victoria down under. I was amazed you could hear the Modulation of the Carrier when you cooked the snag.

[@worawatli8952]

0:50 I can't help imagine someone getting absolutely toasted and an AC/DC song was playing.

[@bobblum5973]

I've cooked a hot dog with RF. Of course it was _microwave_ RF in an oven designed for that purpose... 🙂 I've actually heard a radio station on an old steam radiator, located across the street from a multi-story building with a college radio station antenna and tower atop it. Very low volume, very sporadic, conditions needed to be just right.

[@party4keeps28]

Is that a ham radio, or an all-beef radio?

[@GeerlingEngineering]

Considering it was a 100% Beef frank, I'll go with all-beef. We'll have to try ham at some point, we just got our licenses ;)

[@tootall849]

hahaha I think you win this comments section

[@w8lvradio]

The Hot Dog detector was never as successful as Fessenden's Electrolytic Detector, though variations of it were attempted in the early radio years, such as the Frankenfurter Detector, and the Kielbasa Detector, as it was just too impractical to keep changing out the cooked ones just to get through a fifteen minute show, though having on hand a dozen of the "foot longs" did help, but only somewhat. The main problem was that all of the stores ran out of hot dogs and sausages of any form during The Amos n Andy Radio Hour, or during one of FDR's fireside chats... All the Best! 73 DE W8LV BILL

[@mossvibes]

This cracked me up, thank you for the chuckle!

[@hcjkruse]

Cooking chicken was mentioned in an introduction course into radar. Nice to see this for real.

[@Spee2k12]

I saw the short first with the gloves on, this one made me cringe while being fascinated! Great video!

[@Cline3911]

Irony. Cooking said hot dog, whilst a commercial for Oscar Meyer or a restaurant plays over the air.

[@gus473]

😂 Finally, a PSA worth remembering!

[@mattshu]

0:12 idk why but the smiling at the hot dog is so human 😂

[@DaHaiZhu]

This was too dangerous for even Red-Shirt Jeff to want to try

[@CoreyThompson73]

Ive heard stories from old school tower climbers that they would do a running jump on to live AM towers for painting and whatever other maint needed done. They assumed it was safe as long as you didn't create a path to ground.

[@GeerlingEngineering]

High risk! There are still climbers who go up with some energy (even if reduced a bit)... seems risky to me!

[@joewoodchuck3824]

I didn't know anyone ever climbed live towers.

[@MatthijsvanDuin]

I know there are folks that do manual inspections on _live_ power lines (getting dropped off and picked up by helicopter), they use conductive suits (nomex/steel fiber) and make sure it's properly bonded to the line before they get on it to avoid arcing at contact points. The scariest part is getting on or off, since they first have to bond the helicopter to the power line (which sounds like a helicopter pilot's worst nightmare), then bond themselves to the power line and move over to it, unbond themselves from the helicopter, and finally unbond the helicopter from the power line. This keeps the lineman safe since arcing only happens in the first and last steps, when bonding/unbonding the helicopter (using a long metal rod for initial and final contact).

[@bubbleman2002]

@@MatthijsvanDuin This is what stuntmen can do if they end up making it to retirement! Sounds like they'd be right at home.

[@Its-Just-Zip]

This might be the WURST video I have ever seen. Good job. The thought of my finger playing raido while its being cooked off is terrifying.

[@edwardcowburn2632]

Man that's totally crazy! I would have never known not to touch a tower if you hadn't posted this video. I know nothing about this stuff but I'm I'm very intrigued by it. Stay safe out there guys.

[@bunnysparklzbunnytime5117]

Thank you for this! The sound coming from the hotdog was magical. Can you guys do that with a steak next haha

[@yourbestpallshawn4139]

I got severely electrocuted walking home from school one day on my own street of all places. There was a wire from a utility pole that was just hanging literally right infront of my friends house on the way home. It had been there for months and we’d even touched it as dumb as we were. But one day it was raining which I don’t think even matters because it was basically always wet. But one day we were walking home and eveything went black until I woke up In an ambulance. I literally just barely grazed the thing while walking home and almost died. I’m honestly curious how many people have died inventing or even working with electrical current.

[@bobroberts2371]

In the 1970's ish era , Westinghouse Appliances and others had a hot dog cooker that was two metal prongs stuck into each end of the hotdog. You then closed the drawer and it applied 110 V non isolated house power across the prongs.

[@ottopartz1]

I have the Presto version in the back of one of my cupboards, the "hot dogger" I believe. It's a fun toy but after cleaning it up a couple times the novelty wears off quickly. Plus it actually does a horrible job cooking hot dogs compared to just using a small pan and a bit of water.

[@joewoodchuck3824]

Lots of people heat hot dogs in the microwave oven. Just put a paper plate over them to control splatter and don't let the hot dogs touch each other.

[@lastotallyawesomebleach204]

My dad told me about his family having one of those hot doggers growing up and the hotdogs would have a weird electrical flavor.

[@joewoodchuck3824]

@@lastotallyawesomebleach204 What the hell is electrical flavor? Never heard of that.

[@lastotallyawesomebleach204]

@@joewoodchuck3824 lick an outlet and find out

[@AZREDFERN]

The sharp edges on the cut end of the wire are "grounding" to the air without arcing. I forget the principal why, but that's why basic spark plugs have a little puck with sharp edges that evenly wears, and you have to replace them once it's slightly rounded. Arc gaps and TIG welders control this with a sharp pencil shape at different angles.

[@cougar-den5439]

The E-Field is strongest around the sharp points of conductors that are highly energized. It's why you see lightning rods shaped to a point at the top. With high enough power on a sharp point you can energize the air into a glowing corona, or St Elmo's Fire.

[@gabebegay3809]

01:32 Weird scream/sound far in woods 😮

[@yoimsho]

I worked for 740 KVOR and 1300 KCSF at Cumulus Radio as an IT admin years ago When I would be near the small tower shack for 1300am, I could almost swear I could hear the broadcast in my head. Now, granted you could hear it from the transmitter, but you could almost feel it. Up on Cheyanne Mountain in Colorado Springs, there's a propagation site that sits above NORAD, you could feel the amount of EM energy on that site, too. Tons of FM at that site. Beautiful view on top of the mountain.

[@Sethermiester]

This is why the radio goes in and out I bet. Someone cooking hotdogs.

[@turle8645]

Cook a a ham with it. Ham radio

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

if i told someone you can hear radio in electric arcs, i would be the new cousin Jay who talks about crazy shit

[@sticktwiddler9028]

So much power/danger, and such a small fence!

[@sayori3939]

but i like messing with towers you can't raise the fence how would i climbe it?

[@bobc.7958]

To this day, the tip of one finger of my right hand has a scar from a nasty RF burn. Was 12 years old with a Ham licence and my transmitter was a vintage military ARC-5 with an exposed antenna lug on the front panel. Not enough power to pull and arc, but it still hurt like hell!! That was 1972.

[@GeerlingEngineering]

Ouch! Sometimes those lessons are a bit harder than others :(

[@MaryBrownForFreedom]

About the same age... exposed anode of a TV sweep tube... arced 1/8 inch out to my finger and left a nasty hole...

[@pileofstuff]

Another interesting phenomenon I have observed at AM transmitters (specifically in the P&M hut) - if you use zip-ties with a metal locking tab, the induced RF can heat the tab enough to melt through the tie and release it.

[@PatrickKQ4HBD]

Huh? What wavelength are they transmitting on? 60GHz?

[@pileofstuff]

@@PatrickKQ4HBDNope. Hundreds of Khz. Normal AM broadcast. It's the field strengths that are that high.

[@4X6GP]

I worked at a 5 kW AM when I was in college in the 1960s. We did climb on active towers to change bulbs, etc., but the carrier was cut long enough for the victim to get up onto the tower, away from anything grounded. RF exposure? Not a thing then (and probably it shouldn't be today, at AM frequencies anyway).

[@Iamdebug]

The last time I i talked to an AM station engineer I learned all about this and it set off more curiosity for me in the LF spectrum. Having a full standing tower with metal guy wires only separated by small spacers near 500 volts AC modulating at the frequency of up to 1.6mhz seems both extremely dangerous and an incredible feat of engineering. I've wondered how many transmitters exploded due to accidental shorts in the beginning of AM radio.

[@agoogleaccount2861]

"Cook a hotdog with radio waves" was fun in the late 1980s you took it a step further. Congratulations .

[@jag0937eb]

TALKING SAUSAGE

[@TheUncleRuckus]

Okay but what tf was that @1:31?!

[@bruhjoestar]

Just a skin walker

[@dhrishithcringe602]

sounded like a kaiju lmao

[@richardwillis4880]

When I saw the headline, I knew this wasn't about camping lol

[@davisray]

Just use a dog, it will be a hot dog eventually

[@NAVYABHAN]

Many, many times when I was a child and even into my Teen's I was "ALWAYS TEMPTED" to climb the fence's and the tower's just because they were there! Thank God I listened to my "Guardian Angel" because I wouldn't be here at age 67 to thank you for letting me know that my intuition was correct!

[@Lexelai]

After torturing the hot dog, it revealed where the Death Star is being constructed.

[@EasyGrowsIt]

Being able to hear what is being said is impressive!

[@jchtylmegekr]

Electrically which percentage is being diverted through the hot dog to ground? Enough so that the towers coverage footprint is temporarily reduced?

[@640kareenough6]

I wonder what this does to the impedance of the whole system. I think a hotdog+wire is pretty low resistance/impedance, but maybe it matters less at low frequencies like AM?

[@Rocketman88002]

Got some questions about supported AM broadcast antennas. #1) Why are the three guy cables broken up into sections of different lengths with insulators between each? #2) I've heard the terminology 1/2 wave, 3/4 and full wave. Can you explain to me how the physical lengths of each are determined and the ground plane? What fraction of the full wave length are the antennas typically? What determines the length of the wires in the ground plane buried in the ground around the antenna? How often does the ground plane need to be repaired or replaced. I love your channel! This new world needs to know how valuable AM broadcast radio has been to the world and about the technology that has made it possible. I listened to short wave radio (fastly disappearing) when I was a child. We had an RF/EMP vulnerability test site in New Mexico that used high power Continental AM transmitters. I'll never forget the driver and PA sections to those things. Thank you for your time!

[@RalphHightower]

Well, it looks like the broadcast tower won't be used to cook hot dogs for the station's cookout.

[@allangoes821]

Regards from Brazil!

[@frankjankovich3512]

Copper thief’s challenge to remove grounds or loose the tips of your fingers

[@noelstaar]

This is probably the coolest thing I've seen on youtube in a while

[@untermench3502]

When I was in the Navy we used to demonstrate to newbies what a fire control radar could do by using the grounded hot dog crispy critter.

[@PatrickKQ4HBD]

My Patriot missile battery did something similar.

[@joewoodchuck3824]

I love it! I have conducted the required radiation assessment for my ham radio station BTW, and I won't be cooking anything near my antenna (including myself) anytime soon.

[@Foodstampsandfuelclamps]

I love the “ sorta safe enough way” followed by strong electrical sounds haha 😂 I’m dying lol glad he didn’t.

[@irongronousmagnus7652]

When I was a kid growing up, we lived about 1.5 miles away from a country radio station that was in the 50kw range. This was in the time of the Radio Shack 150-n-1 electronic experiment kits. You could have a naked speaker and a single strand of copper wire attach to listen to the station. :)

[@GeerlingEngineering]

I grew up with one of those electronics kits too! Unfortunately, where we lived, it was further away from the parts of St. Louis with the AM towers... but we did make an AM tuner with the kit, which was still pretty neat :)

[@Nika-cp9np]

I used to live with some family that were about 50ft from the transmitter house for a 200kW international shortwave station! We'd get enough RFI to hear the station through some lightbulbs, sections of fence, any and all headphones and speakers, and keyboards had a habit of typing on their own lol

[@Kleinage]

@@Nika-cp9npI had no idea these stations were so good at compelling various objects to turn into speakers! Wild! Is it only AM or can FM have these effects?

[@Nika-cp9np]

@@KleinageHonestly? I'm not sure. No FM stations exist with the power you see in international shortwave broadcasters. The station I lived at (KNLS) had 2x 100kW transmitters with open feed lines, and that went into a giant pair of shortwave curtain arrays between three 370ft tall towers (definitely look up curtain arrays for the visual!) The effective radiated power of the station was something like 13 or 15 megawatts given the directionality of the arrays, the station was/is used for blasting radio from Alaska to Russia and China.

[@Kinann]

@@GeerlingEngineering I lived 1.5 miles from WMAQs 50 kW transmitter in Chicago. The signal used to play through one of my stereo speakers when it was off.

[@kevinvanpelt5302]

I love the smell of ozone with a touch of beef flavor….

[@piyh3962]

How much would this degrade the signal as you're shorting to ground via hotdog welding?

[@bigbeardog99]

That's crazy. Just this morning, I was in the tower enclosure at the company I work for. I know now not to touch the tower. 🤔

[@johnnychang4233]

1:18 Wouldn't it be a little more risky having a direct contact with grounding while near the transmitter antenna instead of being isolated?

[@niklasxl]

good old ohm sausage :D

[@RogerPettett]

Yikes. RF burns (and RF radiation exposure) are no joke. There's rightly a fresh focus on RF radiation exposure when risk assessing ham stations, at least in the UK - more important at higher frequencies. At any rate, I don't think you'd even find me inside that tower enclosure! 😳

[@GeerlingEngineering]

One thing that we didn't really make clear in this video (though we may do a follow-up!) is how we planned for the video, and how even with the planning there are still plenty of risks that make this experiment dangerous. There's also a lot of information and formulas for safe RF exposure limits for workers who need to enter higher-RF environments (like the inside of one of these fenced-in areas around a tower base!), and for anyone who would ever want to work around towers-you should know all that! (Especially if you're replacing lights, mounting antennas, etc.)

[@RogerPettett]

I know you have decades of experience in environments like this, but it's still a scary place to be. ⚡

[@MaryBrownForFreedom]

Want to stand in front of my 23cm antennas? Four 35 element... 25dbd gain... 550 watts... its only 163,612 watts ERP...

[@RogerPettett]

🌙

[@PatrickKQ4HBD]

​@@MaryBrownForFreedom Are you doing EME? 🌜

[@kakd1870]

MMM hotdogs cooked over an open talk show.

[@CaptainQuetzal]

Why this happens just with AM antennas and not with FM?

[@GeerlingEngineering]

To be honest, we haven't tested on an FM antenna. It would probably still be pretty brutal (RF is RF), but since it's not Amplitude Modulation, you likely wouldn't hear the actual radio broadcast through the plasma. But... it would be interesting to see what you *do* hear! :D

[@jackreno12]

They hear the sounds of the station, everyone on that frequency, hears the thoughts of the hot dog.

[@douglasboyle6544]

Really makes you wonder about that "stolen" AM tower in Alabama

[@BenInSeattle]

Coincidentally, shortly after the 200 Foot AM tower disappeared, Paul Outlaw, an artist from Fairhope, Alabama, unveiled "The World's Largest Hotdog Sculpture". No word yet on whether it talks.

[@Draknfyre]

I've been lucky in that I've only been hit by RF burn once, and it was low wattage. I'd recently trimmed a counterpoise wire for one of my HTs because I'd moved it from the base of the antenna to a belt clip screw and had to compensate for the increased distance to the antenna. And when I trimmed it a tiny portion of the wire remained poking out from the silicone insulation. A few days later I was holding the HT, about to start testing to see which repeaters I could hit, and thought nothing of the counterpoise touching the inside of my arm. Then I keyed up and got zapped because that tiny bit of exposed wire. 8w doesn't sound like much but it felt like a white hot needle going into my arm. The end of that wire now has shrink tubing. ;)

[@drywinddotnet]

Riled up the local Sasquatch population at 1:32

[@MGSHM1]

I had a RF heat experience end of the 80s with a radar beam of a hawk illuminator. Not really pleasant.

[@chriswalford4161]

If you had been a listener receiving the tower signal, would you have heard any effects of the grounding? Any interference or loss of output power, or other artefacts?

[@GeerlingEngineering]

Likely not enough to be noticeable to anyone just listening-note that this is also a three tower array, so the main effect would be more momentarily changing the coverage pattern a little, so someone who's a hundred miles away might notice a brief bit of more static.

[@kenandbarbie-b6c]

The medical field still uses this same principle for cauterization. The classic Bovie CSV uses vacuum tubes & spark gaps to produce the RF to cauterize. It is powerful & could even cut underwater.

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

Time to learn Hot Doggian as a second language

[@Alabaster335]

One of ours here operates at 50kW omnidirectional, fences would talk and people in houses near it would report that they could hear it in their pipes and bedsprings.

[@mephitusincognito7918]

fences would talk? serious? i guess im glad it would have come with call letters because that.. really sounds kinda terrifying...

[@KeritechElectronics]

Never thought hot dogs would talk, let alone demodulate AM at that! A good warning.

[@Advil1024]

"A man falls in love with an AM radio antenna, THIS is what happened to his wiener."

[@mephitusincognito7918]

The fact that you could hear the transmission was really wild.....

[@skiptoacceptancemdarlin]

0:17 “goodbye, cruel world”

[@mysock351C]

I live next to one of these transmitters and can confirm it turns EVERYTHING into an AM radio.

[@ApolloTheDerg]

Now imagine if you were broadcasting screams and the hotdog would just scream when touching the tower.

[@cianmoriarty7345]

Was doing my radio and gunnery course while in the army reserves and armoured corps. My troop sergeant said someone once touched a HF antenna on top of a vehicle while it was transmitting. The unfortunate man was dead before he hit the ground. He also said that during the Vietnam War they used the same HF vehicle mounted radios to talk to tanks and armoured personnel carriers in Vietnam from Puckapunyal in Victoria Australia, in the south of the country. No satellites cables internet nothing like that just direct radio. Crazy.

[@indridcold8433]

There was a fense around an abandoned house that played music when I was a kid. It played a local radio station for years. When the bulldozer came to flatten the house and property, all the kids were upset.