TV licensing...

[Mick F]

Could be mythical, I agree, but it's possible.
If it's possible, someone would have done it. It's only a matter of inductive pickup and some electrical wizardry.

As for lamp-post connections, that certainly isn't mythical.

Cycled past a (closed due to Covid) caravan site yesterday. I noticed all the electrical hook-up points and thought about the people living nearby and how they could - one dark night when no-one was watching - connect up their home to one of them.

[Jdsk]

The story in London revolved around coils buried in the back garden. And then they couldn't decide what the offence was, and eventually settled on theft of the electricity.

But I saw a vaguely connected phenomenon with my own eyes. When colour television broadcasting started we were watching the Wimbledon Championships on a receiver very close to the Crystal Place transmitter. The signal was too strong and the green of the courts gradually bled across the screen. The solution was to position the plug on the aerial lead close to but not in contact with the socket on the television.

Jonathan

[kwackers]

In my younger days I once built a radio that had two tuned circuits, the first was tuned to a local strong signal and this was rectified and smoothed to provide power for the other tuner.
It only drove headphones but it was a step up from a crystal receiver.

Unless you're very close then inductive coupling doesn't result in much energy transfer despite the folklore on the web about Tesla's idea of free wireless energy around the world (it didn't work).
You do see lots of simple circuits around showing "free" energy by inductively coupling to the house electrics and making an LED glow, but the truth behind them is that it's both very low power and not free - the meter still runs faster (phase shifts and power factors notwithstanding).

[Jdsk]

Unless you're very close then inductive coupling doesn't result in much energy transfer despite the folklore on the web about Tesla's idea of free wireless energy around the world (it didn't work).

There's a new attempt at beaming power somewhere... trying to remember where. Uses laser beams along the edges in case anything strays...

IIRC NASA holds the current (!) record.

Jonathan

[Mick F]

When we were first married, we inherited a black and white telly. VHF 405 lines. This was 1973. Lived in a flat with a communal telly aerial system.

When we moved to Rosyth, Fife in spring of 1974, there wasn't a telly aerial to connect up to, so using my electronics knowledge, I connected a capacitor up to the aerial socket on the back of the set. Can't remember the exact value, but it was an electrolytic one perhaps a couple of hundred microfarads.

Worked a treat!
BBC1 and ITV ................... BBC2 was UHF 605 lines so our set couldn't receive it.

[Jdsk]

Unless you're very close then inductive coupling doesn't result in much energy transfer despite the folklore on the web about Tesla's idea of free wireless energy around the world (it didn't work).

There's a new attempt at beaming power somewhere... trying to remember where. Uses laser beams along the edges in case anything strays...

IIRC NASA holds the current (!) record.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_power_transfer

Jonathan

[kwackers]

Unless you're very close then inductive coupling doesn't result in much energy transfer despite the folklore on the web about Tesla's idea of free wireless energy around the world (it didn't work).

There's a new attempt at beaming power somewhere... trying to remember where. Uses laser beams along the edges in case anything strays...

IIRC NASA holds the current (!) record.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_power_transfer

Jonathan

Yeah, that's a slightly different technology (or rather a variant I wasn't really talking about).

The form most folk try to do is near field, inductive coupling.
Having said that if you want to be picky then radios are essentially "far field". Not very efficient though, tens of Kw's into an array for a few micro watts out the other end.

[Mick F]

Yep.
Speak to Marconi about it!

Try radars or sonars.
Loadsa power out, but you need very sensitive receivers to get the echoes processed and detected amongst the clutter and background noise.

They need a big loud mouth, and even bigger sensitive ears.

[rjb]

If you live near a high voltage power line you can have free lighting using fluorescent tubes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvQ9H9K ... SANEnglish

[Mick F]

Excellent illustration.

Try going into a radar transmitter room and sensing the 50kw EHT. It will make you feel rather "sparky" and you can smell the electro charge in the air.

[philg]

Try going into a radar transmitter room and sensing the 50kw EHT. It will make you feel rather "sparky" and you can smell the electro charge in the air.

Somewhere in the Western Isles a long time ago, spending a couple of hours inside the cabin of a 1MW pulsed radar my LED digital watch gained 2 days.
PS - I won't apologise for my watch, it was the 70s, I was young and I thought it was cool.

[Syd]

Try going into a radar transmitter room and sensing the 50kw EHT. It will make you feel rather "sparky" and you can smell the electro charge in the air.

Somewhere in the Western Isles a long time ago, spending a couple of hours inside the cabin of a 1MW pulsed radar my LED digital watch gained 2 days.
PS - I won't apologise for my watch, it was the 70s, I was young and I thought it was cool.

Nowt wrong with an LED watch. I bought this one only last year.

[Mick F]

Right wrist?
Unusual to have a watch on the right, even for left-handers.

Not worn a wristwatch for many a long year. No need for one these days, not because I'm retired, but because there's so many other places and methods to read the time on the move.

I wore a wristwatch forever - or that's the way I remember it. From time at school, right through my time in the RN and afterwards. I have a wristwatch in a drawer I bought in Singapore in 1971 - automatic Seiko - and a battery analogue quartz job too. Not worn either of them for nearly 20 years.

[Syd]

Right wrist?
Unusual to have a watch on the right, even for left-handers.

Scar tissue from a, very, old injury (occurred Jan 8th, 1983) made wearing a watch on my left wrist very uncomfortable for a couple of decades. Just doesn’t feel right wearing it there now.

I have over 50 watches, all sized for my right wrist.

PS I am left handed as are 20% of my colleagues. Wearing a watch on the right wrist is not uncommon among thar group.

[simonineaston]

I've always worn a watch (when I wear one - which is rare) on my right arm - I assumed everyone did. Can't have been looking, eh...? I remember a school friend had a watch that lined up with the way it appeared when he looked at it, that is to say the face was turned through 90° compared with most others, so I must have taking notice of at least his.