[Lowfer] Free Energy/QST October 1999

Sat, 9 Mar 2002 18:52:47 -0800

I wonder where the line is drawn?  Sure, if a competing AM radio station put
up some antenna which rendered another station inoperable but did nothing
else, it would seem illegal.

Maybe it is decided by whether the engineers at the AM station (or other
system) can determine or show that their equipment is being affected.

In my town there is a softball complex not 300' away from an AM BCB tower.
The softball complex has about 9 fields, each surrounded by cyclone fences.
I doubt they suck up much power, but they probably have some effect.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ralph Hartwell" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, March 09, 2002 6:34 PM
Subject: Re: [Lowfer] Free Energy/QST October 1999

> > How can this be?  What laws regulate conversion of radio waves?  I can
> > understand stealing electricity from the power company by bypassing
> the
> > meter, but radio waves?
> > Please elaborate.
>
> If  you construct something in the near field of a broadcast station
> directional antenna system, that absorbs / reflects / redirects some of
> the transmitted RF energy, then you will distort the antenna pattern and
> affect the field strength of the radiated signal.
> In the near field, anything affecting the RF field is "seen" by the
> transmitting antenna system, and effectively becomes a part of it.
>
> That is just as illegal as going onto the stations  physical property
> and modifying the antenna system or damaging the transmitter.
>
> If you are in the far field region, however, then anything you use to
> intercept the RF energy will not be directly "seen" by the transmitting
> antenna.  In the far field region, the interception antenna t is
> effectively decoupled from the transmitter, and generally causes no more
> harm than simply tuning a receiver to the transmitted frequency.
>
> 73,
>
> Ralph   W5JGV / WC2XSR / 13
>
> http://home.att.net/~shmrg
>
> http://home.att.net/~ralph.hartwell
>
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