Using a piece of grass as a modulation monitor

[satech]

This is incredibly dangerous... and it just proves that these kids are incredibly stupid, and surely got some nasty RF burns as a result:

http://englishrussia.com/2012/12/23/listening-to-the-radio-with-help-of-grass/

 

[Tom Wells]

Bet they got little white spots all over their hands, even through the gloves.

Why didn't they just use the branches with one end on (in) the ground?

Looks to me like they were using rose bush branches. There are thorns on the stem....


Some one needs to give an rf lecture to these kids.

 

[Lazy J]

I want to see the video where they discovered they don't want to touch the tower with their bare hands!

 

[rcs]

Here's another bunch of crazy kids fooling around on top of a very tall tower:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tDVVN6RhG0

 

[BobOnTheJob]

I wouldn't do that with multiple safety belts on.

 

[darklife]

Bet they got little white spots all over their hands, even through the gloves.

That is what those spots are?
I am somewhat serious since when I was much younger I played around with 10 watts of RF on HF and a week later had a few hard spots on the side of my fingers. I always figured they were from getting into weeds outside or something.
Now you have me wondering.

I was only playing around with fluorescent bulbs though and did touch the loading coil a few times directly. Don't ask why.

 

[Tom Wells]

Hmm. With 10 watts you probably were in no danger, but if 10 watts is tuned properly you certainly can get rf burns.

I don't recall such burns ever becoming hard spots, but maybe for some that is the skin's response.

I do recall the little puffs of smoke off my skin when touching the output coil :.

 

[kenglish]

I still have a very pretty little white spot on my forearm (looks like a baby's skin), from where I was holding the key down on an ARC-94 (aircraft HF transmitter) test set, and the shield of the cable going in to the dummy load was bad. My arm brushed against the lid on the power meter just long enough to hear a quick buzz, and see some gray smoke float up from my arm.
We added a ground plane to the bench, and some wire braid jumpers later that day.