[AT] Garden tractor???/Now RF hazard

[Steve W.]

charliehill wrote:
> There is an "urban legend" around these parts about a guy who lived right 
> up against the fence of a Navy Base in the Norfolk, Va. Beach area of VA. 
> He was supposedly a radar expert that worked for the base.  He built some 
> sort of antenna/concentrator that he used to gather RF from the radar at the 
> base and was powering his house with it until the base found out and made 
> him stop.
> 
> I have no idea if that is possible or true.  It was told to me by a guy who 
> worked there at the same time.  He was also some sort of radar tech and he 
> seemed to believe it.
> 
> Charlie

It is VERY possible to do. In fact it is one of the things being talked
about for wireless power transmission. The idea is you use a VERY
directional transmitted to send a regulated sine-wave signal. At the
other end you receive the signal and use a transformer array to convert
it into usable power.
If you want a simple proof that it works take a look at any crystal
radio. It uses the signals power converted into voltage to make it
operate. Remember that the way to make the radio work better was to use
a larger antenna. The reason for that is that the larger antenna
captures more signal and more voltage as a result.


I have seen a few cases of power companies taking people to court for
theft of services based on a similar concept. The person would take a
large coil of wire and lay it out under a high voltage line. The radiant
field of the power lines is enough to generate 200+ volts in the lower
coil. Basically a large transformer, using air as the inductor core.

-- 
Steve W.