Sure the Bellagio fountains look nice, but did you know that they are actually operated by the NSA?
Posted on 11/24/2010 10:26:56 AM PST by epithermal
The Electrolytic Fluid Antenna has a range of 30 miles and could be used on sea or land.
The average U.S. Navy vessel has 80 different antennae bristling out of it like a spiny beetle. But it's often hard to find adequate space for all of them without interference, and their height can expose the ship to radar detection. What if they could be replaced using something a ship always has plenty of: seawater?
Daniel Tam, an engineer at Spawar Systems Center (sort of a DARPA for the Navy), exploited the magnetic induction properties of salt water to create an electrolytic fluid antenna which can broadcast and receive VHF and UHF signals.
The design is simple: just shoot a thin stream of seawater through an electromagnetic coil called a current probe, and presto -- instant radio communication. A jet 6 feet tall will operate on VHF, and 2 feet gets you UHF. Current probes can be easily stacked and installed anywhere on the deck, because the water-streams can simply be turned off when they're not in use.
The tech makes sense on land, as well -- especially for restoring emergency communications in a crisis area whose power grid has been knocked out. Dump rock salt into a bucket of fresh water, foot-pump it through some plastic pipe with small solar- or generator-powered current probe, and flood victims or emergency-response personnel could be on the air much faster.
The fluid antenna's range has been successfully tested at 30 miles, and the Navy is seeking commercial partners for the patent-pending technology. Expect neo-survivalist types to start stockpiling these babies faster than you can say "peak oil".
Only a down wind directional version.....
Interesting concept..
Of course it will. Don't you remember that Darwin Award Winner from a couple of years ago who pissed on the transformer in the power substation?
Sure the Bellagio fountains look nice, but did you know that they are actually operated by the NSA?
That is pretty cool
Your question simply explains gaydar
There may be one or two slightly expensive little devices I failed to mention because they still do not exist. We know how to do other things with water that are so amazing that they defy explanation. Today, lots of things do not exist. Things like this that we are allowed to know about are black holes.
Hmm, maybe those $400 toilet seats were actually electromagnetic coils.
I really doubt it. Right now you can carry a small coil of wire, and throw it up into a tree. For the more serious, you can get telescoping antenna that collapse to a pretty small, storable size. And these work out of the box.
With the stream-of-water, you need a steady supply of water, a pump, power to run the pump, and a supply of salt that you can waste. If you have a collection pool, and make sure to shoot straight up, you might be able to recycle the water to some degree, but it's still a lot of work.
And when done, you have an antenna that only works while you have the power to run it, is susceptable to breezes, and doesn't work nearly as well as a wire.
I can see the advantage of this for a navy ship, for the reasons given in the article. It is just the opposite of the simplicity a survivalist would be looking for.
Nice video, thanks. I am thinking this is only a fair weather operation unless you use the tube enclosure.
I am also thinking instead of pumping water up, why not just load a tank with sea water and let it flow down out a nozzle?
Sure. And the use of urine would also spur a revolution in data compression because, after all, an antenna-man 3rd class can only pee for so long before he needs to fill up with another 12-pack.
This is new? /sarc
I have seen movies on water screens at Disney.....
I am sure the timely news of this is “news” to somebody, otherwise it sounds great, good old Made in USA at work?
The secret is out. The CIA is operating a huge covert phased array radar in Las Vegas. ;)
Yep. After all we can't violate the first rule of the sea: Don't piss into the wind.
In an emergency, what would be quicker to put together for a VHF radiator? A foot pump, a bucket, rock salt and water? Or 20 inches of 12 gauge wire?
Herm
continuos gravity feed, the range would necessarily double every five feet. Take a pillar of salt/electrolyte solution and mount all of the 100 diferent antennae arrays side by side.
> I wonder if this would work with a stream of urine?
As long as the consequences of peeing on an electric fence are considered first.
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