Quote:
Originally Posted by old_tv_nut
There have been reports of houses within a mile or two of 50 kW stations producing program sound in the heating ducts - not sure how loud or even how factual this was, but it's a neat urban legend, at least.
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It's not just urban legend. I have read of people within a short distance of powerful AM radio stations receiving the signals on, believe it or not, the burner coils of electric stoves. I guess if the signal is strong enough, just about anything can receive it and be heard. There have even been reports of people receiving very strong AM radio signals on tooth fillings or braces, again if the signal is strong enough (50kW), and if the person is close enough (within perhaps 500 feet or so) to the station's tower(s).
In the early 1970s, I lived just about a third of a mile from a local FM station. I could see the transmitter tower from my bedroom window (I lived on the top floor of a three-story house at the time), and the signal came in like gangbusters. I was hearing the signal between stations on all my FM radios, as well as on channel 6 of an old color TV I owned and even, to my dumbfounded surprise, on the 10-meter amateur band on an old Hallicrafters amateur communications receiver in my Novice class amateur radio station at the time. The station's signal was so strong (and I was only within almost literally a stone's throw from the tower) that it was overloading (!) the receiver's front end.
There is a 1000-watt AM station near my apartment where I live today which, thankfully, doesn't cause me any trouble from strong signals (I am perhaps one or two miles from the station's tower), but I can imagine folks living a lot closer to that station's towers being able to hear it between stations and even, like my experience with the FM station where I formerly lived, hearing it on stove burners and even, if the person lived extremely close (within a few hundred feet or less(!)) to the towers, on bedsprings.
BTW, I no longer live anywhere near that radio station which was taking over my FM radios in the 1970s (thank goodness!); in fact, several years ago (in the 1980s, IIRC) the radio station itself was moved to another town a few miles away, and I now personally live in a very small town some 20 miles from the city to which that station is licensed.
However, you can be sure I will never forget the experiences I had when I lived literally in the shadow (!) of that station's tower. One of the other places in the Cleveland area where this kind of thing can happen is the city of Parma, Ohio, west of Cleveland, where many if not most of Cleveland's AM and FM radio stations' towers are located. Most of the AM stations are 50kW flamethrowers, with the FM stations having ERPs in the tens of thousands (!) of watts. Again, I am very glad I never lived in that area, and left the city many years ago where that 27.5-kW FM station was giving me more grief than I wanted in the first place; however, I had no choice in the matter when I lived there, as I was 16 years old and was living in that area (Cleveland Heights, Ohio) very much against my will (very, very long story, OT, and something I wish I could forget, but I know darn well I never will).