I am responding since my reply does have something to do with ham radio. In fact, this rectification phenomenon is what got me into ham radio! In the latter 50s I couldn't believe my ears when one evening I was in the bath tub and could hear faintly, but distinctly, the AM station WJR -- Detroit, seeming to be coming from or near the tub water spout. We lived close to their broadcasting antennas. I called my Dad and he heard it as well. Of course, at first, he thought I was nuts. IT only "worked" some of the time and it seems whenever I wanted to demonstrate to a friend what I heard, it didn't work. Naturally, I was deemed to be a nut case by my buddies.
It would come and go but no doubt about it, it was WJR. Since neither of us knew what was happening, my Dad suggested talking to our neighbor down the street who was a ham. He explained it was an interaction of the metals used in the water feed pipe and spout and the spout probably "amplified" the sound a bit. He then gave me my first radio -- a crystal/cat whisker kit. I spent hours moving that "whisker" around and "tuning" in stations. I was totally fascinated and enthralled and started to hang around Russ "the ham" and he was my mentor and Elmer. What a great guy and what a great hobby all of these years. I have not thought about those events for years and the post about the rectification via amalgam fillings made me smile and I thought "....gee, the same sort of thing actually happened to me and that is why I am typing this today." Greg K2UM ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
