When I got the radio bug at about age 12 and had received my first 2m
signals on a dipole and a super regen receiver, I learned from my school
physics that water had a dielectric constant of about 80. This led me
to thinking that my 2m dipole would resonate on 1.8 MHz if I immersed it
in water (144/80 =1.8). The only convenient large mass of water was the
bath so I tried this experiment and found that signals on 1.8 MHz were
much worse on the R1155 than with the random piece of wire outside. To
this day I'm still not sure a) how I managed to avoid electrocuting
myself and b) that if it had been a plastic bath instead of cast iron I
might have found the holy grail i.e. the perfect indoor top band antenna.
John G3UUT
Dr. David Kirkby wrote:
> Robert Groh wrote:
>
>> Well, your idea certainly hit home for me! Way, way back in the olden
>> days (probably 1950'ish when I was about 8 or 9 years old), I had
>> exactly the same idea. I was very excited about the idea, drew up a
>> sketch and tried to convince my father to help me build it. Perpetual
>> motion! Why not! Well, he was a bit more pragmatic and the idea died a
>> quiet death after a couple of weeks. Don't remember when I had learned
>> enough physics to figure out it was a non-starter but I sure do remember
>> the excitement of the idea!
>>
>> 73
>> Bob Groh, WA2CKY
>>
>
> Interesting you say that. I wonder how many other kids have had the same
> idea. It is probably the easiest concept of a perpetual motion machine
> to understand. I can't think of an easier example myself.
>
> A guy was telling me at work once his mate managed to get free
> electricity - enough to heat his green house. This idea does sound
> plausible, though its not perpetual motion.
>
> Many homes in the UK have the mains electricity coming into the house
> via 3 cables - live, neutral and earth. The earth and neutral are joined
> at the sub-station, but due to the resistance of the wires, and the
> unbalanced load on the 3 phases , there can be a small voltage between
> neutral and earth. That does not pass through the electricity meter, so
> you do not pay for it.
>
> No chance of it working here - I have a 3-phase supply, but no earth is
> supplied to me.
>
> Dave, G8WRB
>
>
>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> *From:* Dr. David Kirkby <david.kirkby@onetel.net>
>> *To:* Bob Sutton <zl1rs@yahoo.com>; AMPS <amps@contesting.com>
>> *Sent:* Tuesday, May 19, 2009 4:33:16 AM
>> *Subject:* Re: [Amps] [Moon-net] Major breakthrough with regenerative yagi.
>>
>> --- snip
>>
>> For what it is worth, when I was a lot younger I had this idea to make
>> free electricity. One had a motor and dynamo (generator) connected via a
>> belt. One powered the motor up, which turned the generator, which made
>> enough power to power the motor and some extra you could use. Once it
>> was started, it kept going.
>>
>> I was convinced it would work! I'm not sure how old I was when I had
>> this idea, but I know I would have known it was fundamentally flawed by
>> the age of 16. Antennas are a lot more complex to understand properly
>> than the simple generator/motor idea of mine.
>>
>> ---- snip
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>>
>
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