⚡️💡Under the transmission line experiments.

We used florescent light tubes to peak tune the final radio frequency output tube on a commercial AM radio station back in the 1980s. The brighter the flash, the more signal was being delivered to our antenna.

Back in the 80's we ran a permanent electric fence around a large farm I was working for. Part of that fence ran under some large power lines coming from a power plant and once that fence was insulated it was hot without being connected to a charger.

I want to clarify somethi g i see in a lot of the comments. Its not power that is just seeping away lost forever. When you introduce an inductive circuit next to another it creates a back emf and actually opposes the flow of current in the power line, thereby causing resistance and effectively taking power. Without the light bulb in place, the emf from the power line has no opposition and therefore doesnt see a resistance on the line.

When I was in the Navy back in the 70’s we used to strap fluorescent tubes near high powered radio sets when tuning up. The flickering lamp was a good indication we were transmitting. Also I rembet bring on a ship within 10 miles if a very high powered VLF transmitter and all the fluorescent lamps that were off would flash on and off.

I'd parked my car under some very high voltage transmission lines in California right where the lines sagged. It was next to a creek running from a hot spring. I had gotten out of the water and sat on a small aluminum beach chair in the dirt next to my car. I touched my car and felt a pretty good voltage. Definitely made me pull back. It would have been interesting to measure the voltage with a meter but I didn't have one. The car was acting as part of a capacitor coupling through the air. There was a radio station in Hampton Virginia the early 80's called WPEX that put up fluorescent tubes on the tower so that it spelled out "X 15". It looked cool at night from Rt. 64. with the bulbs lit up from the RF of the antenna.

3 ways to grab power leakage. Capacitive, just a long plate of copper insulated from ground, inductive, a bunch of rebar or similar wrapped with copper wire, or ion capture, an array of insulated spikes. The first gives the highest voltage. The second gives the most current. The third is highly dependant on weather.

Did this experiment myself when I was a kid. I found that using telephone wire wound around the tube caused it to glow very brightly. Understanding the physics behind why they did that took me many years to learn. It is the electro-magnetic field that was causing this effect. Another experiment is a fluorescent tube taped to a CB or ham radio antenna and transmitting on the radio. The tube would glow faintly and glow bright when whistling into the mike. In this case it was Radio Frequency (RF) a different form of EMF causing the particles in the tube to be excited and give off photons.

Great stories from the commenters and electricians. Hope you keep up your experiments.

Awesome. I've been wanting to do that for about 30 years now. Thanks!

a CB Radio properly tuned can illuminate a Fluorescent tube pretty well, i've done it and scared a friend of mine half to death with the demo, with a Linear amp the light was full brightness end to end and plenty of light to read by, and we did something similar when i was in Vo-Tech, we had some high-tension lines that ran across the campus, our instructor had a PVC Pipe with a fitting that was the right size to clip a Flouro tube into and hold it up in the air, with the other end going to the ground with just a tent stake on the end of it, it was i want to say a 10 or 12 foot chunk of Schedule 40 PVC and that tube lit up, not super bright, but bright enough you could see in the daylight, so it is doable, and its crazy what kind of power radiates as RF from things we use day-to-day, also i mentioned the CB Radio/base station with the Fluro tube, you can do the same thing by standing near an AM Transmitting station, or a SW station, that'll light a tube pretty good from not that far away (~100yds)

Thirty years ago I drove a clean garbage truck picking up recyclable cardboard. I was loading cardboard into my truck from a dumpster, which was positioned under large electrical wires. I mean LARGE. As I was doing this, my upper arm touched the dumpster, and I received a mild continuous shock. I can't imagine what that might do to people who actually live in houses situated under those wires.

Thanks for sharing, Merry X-mas and Happy New Year. Cheers.

Very interesting experiments. I'm inspired to help find the next big bang! Thanks buddy

Really interesting, thanks for posting 👍

I remember riding my dirt bike under the transmissions lines in a dry summer and feeling the hair on the back of my neck raise up.

You could probably do the same thing anywhere to be honest....if not with the same set up...with a slightly higher antenna! Great video man!

We did it as kids with 8 foot tubes. They really lit up on high humidity days.

I might suggest, as a test, is to see how many meters of "fence" cable it takes to sufficiently test your lamps brightness,instead of the aluminum antenna.(10, 20, 30 meters) Also there are two contact points on each end of the lamps. Did you use antenna and ground on the same end when you tested them? Would a capacitor keep the lamps from flickering? It sounds as if you can do several experiments if you want! It is a unique lab you have!

I love your microwave shelf👍🏻🇺🇸

Years ago I attended an electronics trade school, I remember the instructor pointing out the RF around power lines. He said you could actually take coils of wire and situate it under a power line, and you can/will produce electricity. You could even power your house just from what is being radiated into the air from the power line. BUT the electric company WOULD fine you for doing it, they consider it "stealing".