[Boatanchors] Strange Question Antenna

[Robert Kulow]

Years ago I did that while in college.  The college was located right 
across the Hudson river from New York City.

There was a very long wire antenna stretched between two college dorms. 
I put a bridge rectifier from it to ground and got enough voltage to 
operate a transistor radio just from the RF pickup.

It was too long ago to remember exactly what voltage I got but I think 
it was around 3 volts.

This was a very long antenna in a high RF environment. YMMV.

73

Bob WA2UEH

On 8/12/2022 11:05 AM, Keith Densmore wrote:
> OK, here goes. Has anyone tried to use their shortwave antenna as a DC
> voltage source? By that, I mean rectifying ALL the energy coming into the
> antenna via a step up transformer, diode rectifier and charging, smoothing
> capacitor or small battery?
> Reason for asking--My zero power crystal radio has a germanium diode with a
> forward bias of about .3 volts. Can an untuned antenna generate that much
> voltage to forward bias the diode and therefore increase its sensitivity?
> Thought I would ask before I experiment.
> Thanks, Keith
> ve3gem
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