[Lowfer] "Natural" Receivers.

[KD7JYK]

I was wearing high carbon soled hiking boots.  I was walking along a dirt
road near Montgomery Pass between california and Nevada, there is a lot of
Quartz in the gravel there, so that was most likely the cause.  From what I
have seen on The Learning Channel, the buzz from insects is the static
generated on the wings by minute dust particles in the air, you may have
seen similar effects when footage of the Gulf War was shown on TV through
night vision cameras, it amplified the light caused by static on the leading
edge of Helicopter rotors created by sand churning about, this also causes a
lot of RF hiss.  One thing I would have liked to hear, at one time while
working with a lot of film, I opened the steel canisters which were sealed
with what looks like electrical tape, as I would pull the tape and let the
canisted spin in my fingers, at the point the tape seperated from the steel
was a very bright blue corona, roughly 5/8" wide, the width of the tape, and
fat, maybe half that of a toothpick, at first I thought my eyes were playing
tricks under the safety lights, so I opened several canisters in total
darkness, it was amazing, I could focus on the source and watch it for maybe
five seconds or so!  I hear masking tape does the same thing with aluminized
mylar anti-static bags.  I seem to recall there is a name for this effect.

Kurt