[sdiy] bio electricity

[Rob B]

ANY power cable can have a signal riding upon it! Even when cable tv first
came out and I was a *very* young kid, I asked my dad "why can't they just
use the powercord?" After, of course, I watched a cable lineman basically
blow off his left arm in a nearby park.

Thinking back, it just reminds me that sometimes knowing enough to be able
to do something is the exact reason you won't.


Rob

----- Original Message -----
From: Toby <carpet8 at mac.com>
To: <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2001 6:48 AM
Subject: Re: [sdiy] bio electricity


> on 11/5/01 1:34 AM,  at krooshof at xs4all.nl wrote:
>
> >> Do you remember the FM audio distribution allong the
> >> home mains power lines?
> >>
> >> m.c.
> >
> > Yes, I do. That is: Im too young to remamber, but I have the equipment.
> > Here's a last weeks email pingpong from Harry and me.
> > Maybe you can shine another a light on the safety issues...
> >
> > _________________________________________
> > --- Dave Krooshof <krooshof at xs4all.nl> wrote:
> >> A tube question, Harry,
> >>
> >> I happen to have a 3 tube amp from the Radio Distribution.
> >> That was a thing from the fifties, when the Dutch Phone
> >> company used the telephone lines as a radio transmitter.
> >> In the house was a box mounted on the wall. It had a switch
> >> to choose between 5 chanels. Then it had a switchable trafo
> >> for volume. The amp is totally weird. It hasn't got a trafo, nor
> >> for the power supply, nor for the speaker. No readable info
> >> anywhere on the print, parts, or box.
> >> The odd thing is... I connected a jackcable to its input.
> >> When I touch it, it doesn't hum, it beeps. Even louder when I lick
> >> the plug. And it's tunable with a crybaby (not with other wah's).
> >> Then I make beating patterns with a flanger and a chorus.
> >>
> >> What is your guess, what happens in the amp?
> >> AM?
> >
> > My Guess... it may be a transmitter, probably AM if its from the
> > 50's... FM was just getting started and not common yet.
> >
> > Probably rectifies the line directly for HV, and runs the filiments
> > in series (maybe 3 tubes @ 12V each... 36V... then some resistor
> > in series so it don't blow.
> > Is there an incandescent lamp anywhere... pilot light
> > maybe... that could be part of the dropping circuit.
> >
> >> And can there be any danger that one day 240 volts
> >> will hit me when a tube decides to break down?
> > Yes...  I would not lick the plug too often....
> >
> > Y'know it might use a series capacitor to drop the voltage to
> > the filaments...
> > anyway... its dangerous. I only lick 9V batteries, tops... and I'd
> > transformer isolate AND ground lift if I was gonna do it on stage...
> >
> > <video cue... cartoon electric shock... where the body flashes yellow
> > and black, and you can see the bones inside... >
> >
> > H^) harry
> >
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> Dave
> >
> >
> Also, I read in Wired that this guy figured out how to use the magnetic
> field surrounding individual power lines to transmit data--at a very high
> rate.  We've got a pre-built terabit internet.  It seems that nobody wants
> to invest in his project except the Germans.
>
> toby
>