As the Nicolai Tesla and Thomas Edison war ragged on between the
adoption of DC versus AC for commercial power distribution, Edison was
said to have engaged in a large financed propaganda campaign call
Tesla's AC distribution method "the currents of death." This included
graphic cartoons of the fact that with a DC shock a person would be able
to let go while with AC the person muscles would contract and they would
be drawn into the "more dangerous" electricity.
With the help of George Westinghouse Tesla eventually got his idea
adopted universally. But in the 50's there were still parts of the world
like Manaus Brazil on the Amazon River still using DC to power the
city. Even more ironic was the Canal Zone which was using 25HZ AC to
run their operation. Imagine the size of their transformers with this
frequency.
Herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ
I think people are being silly.
Not only has there never been any evidence (beyond some fraudulent thing
that created hysteria) that power lines ever cause health problems, a dc
line has much less radiation.
As far as Ham radio, a dc is far less problematic for noise. 690 kV dc is
like 487 kV ac, except the line doesn't have the charging and discharging
issues that generate a lot of noise in bad connections.
The only possible issues would be noise at the dc-to-ac converters, but they
might be miles from you.
I wouldn't worry, and I would not support those who worry about other issues
like safety or health.
73 Tom
Tom is referring to a book published in 1976 by Paul Brodeur titled "The
Zapping of America."
The subject was bio-effects of AC powerlines. He also wrote several
articles for the New Yorker
which is a well known "scientific journal."
Most of the objections are from environmental issues. We have the "Northern
Pass" project in NH that is driving the Sierra Club
and many others nuts over despoiling the natural beauty of NH.
Craig K1QX
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