[ARC5] Seeking Extinct Wire

[David Stinson]

Thanks for this valuable info, Mike.
I note from the photo that the iron wires of the band
appear to be twisted together into a cable configuration?
I had read that the wires were not wrapped around
each other, as the twist would caused the EM field in
individual wires to phase-cancel (like a twisted pair)<
but rather layered to act like transformer laminations
(thus the insulation)  Have you tried yours for function?

The one I have is a home-brew which came with
steel wires that were twisted together
into a cable and painted with some kind of
gray paint.  The coils and magnets are good,
as are the lo-Z headphones, but the unit
has no output, unless one stuffs volts of RF
into it, so that what one hears is just
non-linear high-level leakage.
The only thing I can see which looks "off"
is the wires.  This one is a "demonstrator"
which has a hand crank on the side.
I mean to install a proper
clockwork, but not until it is functional.

I had this crazy idea of trying to extrapolate
the real, practical sensitivity of the "Maggie"
used on the RMS Titanic, because I had
some doubts about some of the claims
made for receiving the ship's distress
calls far inland, or even at modest
coastal stations.

But then I found the ship antenna technical
specifications: a center-fed
Marconi "T" 160 feet tall, with four "top hat"
capacitive-loading horizontal wires 400 feet
long, the other capacitor plate
(ground plane) a zillion tons of steel
floating in thousands of miles of salt-water.

So... OK.  You probably could have heard
them had McBride sparked a 12-volt battery
across the antenna.
But I still want to get this "Maggie" to work.

TNX OM ES 73 DE Dave AB5S

On 5/30/2025 7:31 AM, Mike Feher wrote:
>
> Dave – I believe the originals were spot welded.
>
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