[Lowfer] Free Energy/QST October 1999

[Ed Phillips]

> 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.

	Theoretically true, but in practice I doubt that anything you could do
would cause any observable shift in patterns with resulting increase in
interference in the "protected" region.  Say you intercepted a couple of
watts of power.  That could under some circumstances be equivalent to
increasing the radiation in a null in the transmitter pattern by a
couple of watts, which is trivial.   
 
> 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

	In summary, I don't think anyone playing around like this will do
anything anyone else can detect, so play away...

Ed