We made a hot dog talk with RF [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgDxXDV4_hc

by geerlingguy • 2 years ago

48 15 2 years ago

gambiting• 2 years ago

There's loads of videos of bored russian teenagers doing this with leafs and blades of grass held with their bare hands too, but yeah.....pretty cool. Only works with AM radio as far as I understand though.

joecool1029• 2 years ago

One such old example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMuJKsUjD_o

mock-possum• 2 years ago

Wow the arc utterly obliterates the hot dog at the point of contact.

biomcgary2• 2 years ago

Is the hot dog vibrating to produce sound or is the sound from hot dog derived plasma? The auditory frequency distortion seems minimal, so I'm betting plasma.

geerlingguy3• 2 years ago

It's the plasma—the hot dog was just a convenient path for the energy to flow. The actual material vaporized pretty quickly, definitely don't touch a live AM tower while standing on the ground. And probably ever, unless it's locked out and de-energized! (Especially if you're not a radio engineer or tower climber.)

RulerOf• 2 years ago

Any more details on how exactly that works? I've always associated plasmas with a buzzing noise but is that because they all vibrate?

biomcgary2• 2 years ago

Thanks for the reply. Love your work.

garciasn2• 2 years ago

Don’t ever touch a tower.

Important safety tip, Egon; thanks.

pyinstallwoes• 2 years ago

Egon?

garciasn2• 2 years ago

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jyaLZHiJJnE

chezball• 2 years ago

Why in the world is the fence around that so short? This is nuts! I would have jumped that as a kid to climb the tower. Probably not in bare feet or the rain. It seems strange to not protect this better (yes, i know, kids are not supposed to be there, but kids are (properly) designed for finding trouble.)

geerlingguy3• 2 years ago

There's a small fence around each tower with signage indicating the RF danger. Then around the whole property there's a horse-height fence, with a locked gate. And around that there are a few miles of soggy farmland, so it's pretty low risk.

Site plans have to include certain safety precautions, and fence type, placement, height, etc. are all submitted to the FCC when a tower site is designed or rebuilt.

1letterunixname• 2 years ago

Related classics:

(2019) BigClive overclocks a 120v Presto hot dogger to 250v https://youtu.be/n2ZZbuOeNmw

(2019) Veratasium grape microwave plasma https://youtu.be/wCrtk-pyP0I

(2022) BigClive The dangers of microwave transformers https://youtu.be/FBeSKL9zVro

(2016) BigClive Electrocution risk of cheap USB chargers https://youtu.be/3Hdn0MuCK_0

(2020) ElectroBOOM proves 5G isn't going to give you cancer or eat your children https://youtu.be/i4pxw4tYeCU

anfractuosity• 2 years ago

Nice list, also pickles apparently glow under mains AC - http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/pickle.h...

We made a hot dog talk with RF [video]

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