Ed's View - THE HARVESTER - A Miracle Power Source — Community

#1 Apr 1, 2011 at 2:06 pm

Sounds like the title of a Steven King novel. Not quite. The term “power harvesting” has long been given to the process of acquiring useful power from otherwise wasted energy sources. However, in this particular application it is the name given to a uniquely innovative system that provides power to electronic devices virtually free. The theory has been known for years: a vast amount of energy flows in the ether simply from the existence of random RF radiation over a vast spectrum. The engineering challenge, of course, has been...

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#2 Apr 1, 2011 at 3:20 pm

Everything old is new again. The first AM radio receivers used 'cat's whiskers' or galena crystals to power a set of very uncomfortable carbon headphones.

I built a Heathkit crystal radio set in the early 1960s that used a 1N34 germanium diode to do much the same thing. The stronger the AM carrier, the louder the signal through the headphones.

Stories abound of people who lived near TV, FM, and AM transmitting towers who powered their fluorescent lights just by induction. I don't know if I'd want that much RF flowing through my body on a regular basis, but it was interesting to see the effect first hand.

#3 Apr 1, 2011 at 4:47 pm

Ed,

> By next April 1, expect to find smart phones harvesting the spectrum and even powering themselves. <

Right. Because smartphones use so few microAmps that they last for years on a single charge. Especially when they're transmitting. :shock:

Thanks for the annual laugh.

- Tim