Re: Pine Trees "antenna"

Terry Bastian ( tbastian@dmv.com )
Wed, 18 Mar 1998 21:49:33 -0500

General George O. Squire, Chief Signal Officer, discovered that any tree
can be used as a radio antenna. He first noticed some anomalies when the
army was using trees as grounds for their buzzer and telegraph and
telephone sets in 1904. Of course at that time radio transmitting and
recieving was not widespread, so his experiments with trees as antennas
apparently didnt get too far. However during WW1 several signal corps
stations tested live, growing trees as antennas. Trees are not only
sensitive antennas, but they also seem to be natural noise filters, for
they provided a more static free reception (AM modulation) than man made
"aerials".
A dead tree will not work, and a tree with foliage does better than one
that has no leaf. The tree is connected to the reciever thru a wire
connected to a nail driven into the tree. The more nails used the stronger
the signal, up to 6 or 8.(gold plaited nails will not be reactive and will
not poison the tree) Multiple recievers can use the same tree.
Location of the nail in the tree is important: about 2 thirds of the way
up the tree (e.g., at 20 foot on a 30 foot tree) was found to be of the
best recption. Transmission had been demonstrated but was still in the
laboratory stage. Two way voice communication had been established via
trees with low transmitting current.
Unlike orthodox antennas, it doesnt matter if the tree is surrounded by
other trees or is alone. The obvious objection is that the wire used for
the downlead is the real antenna, but when an insulator is placed between
the tree and the downlead all reception promptly drops off or ceases
entirely.

Scientific American page 624 (year and volume unknown)
=================================================================

Here is the info and If anyone finds the year and volume please let me
know......

Terry Bastian

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