293
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I don't think that was a feature of Dick Tracy's wrist radio.

[-] skillissuer@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

range 1500km, this is completely doable on standard amateur radio equipment, you just need few hundred watts of power

this is what happens when you're too close to an antenna handling power like that (lifted from reddit):

A few years ago, when I lived in-town, I had an issue. I came home from work one evening and immediately began to tune up the radio so that I might work some grey line DX when I noticed that my tuner was having difficulty tuning within the 20m DX window. I reset and again, it failed. I looked out the window and noticed, to my horror, that some moron had decided to hang laundry from my 80m dipole.

Quickly, I realized that the culprit must have been my neighbor who had a habit of using or taking my property without asking. I gathered his laundry in a basket, walked next door, dropped it on the doorstep and went back home. Just to be sure that he got the memo, I dropped a handwritten note atop the laundry which basically read "That's not a clothesline, it's an antenna. This antenna will have 100-200W (TS-480HX) on it, so don't touch it! Contact with the antenna will result in terribly painful RF burns- no kidding. Don't touch the antenna. Don't hang things from the antenna. Don't come on my property."

Not wanting to get sued by some payday-seeking jerk (many of those in this area), I tied lengths of Caution tape to the legs of the dipole to act as a visual warning.

Guess what? Halfway through a conversation with a delightful ham in Brazil, I heard intense screaming from the backyard. I ran to the back window and found my selfish, moronic neighbor holding his forearm where it had contacted the dipole as he tried to rehang his wet laundry.

He threatened to call the police, so I just called the sheriff, who happened to be the local ARC president. Threatened with a Criminal Trespassing charge, the neighbor let it go and never returned to my yard. On the plus side, all of my missing tools were mysteriously returned within a few days, too.

To wrap up this ramble, I felt bad about him being injured, so the sheriff and I paid him a visit to check on his progress over the subsequent couple of months. It wasn't quite as bad as he had asserted and he did recover. I have since moved to avoid yahoos such as him.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Ok... what does that have to do with a fictional wrist radio in a comic strip?

[-] Geek_King@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I believe @skillissuer is pointing out that in order to broadcast the 1500km that Dick Tracy's watch was said to have would require a ton of power. That power would make it dangerous to have on your wrist. That's just what I pieced together through context though.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Ah, that does make sense. It was very unclear to me.

[-] skillissuer@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

yeah sorry if it was unclear. this problem is avoided by talking to some other station, usually GSM tower or satellite. when you don't have this luxury, you need high power, large antenna array or you get lower range

this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023
293 points (96.5% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26980 readers
483 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS