1 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:07,160 Speaker 1: Get in text with technology with tech Stuff from how 2 00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:14,360 Speaker 1: stuff works dot Com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:14,400 --> 00:00:18,360 Speaker 1: I am your host, senior writer Jonathan Strickland right for 4 00:00:18,440 --> 00:00:20,840 Speaker 1: house stuff, What's dot Com? And today we're going to 5 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:25,000 Speaker 1: have part to the exciting conclusion on our episodes about 6 00:00:25,079 --> 00:00:30,760 Speaker 1: transmitter hunting. Our our friend, my coworker, Joe McCormick joins 7 00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:34,519 Speaker 1: us to talk about this interesting use of technology and 8 00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:38,080 Speaker 1: how it's been turned into a sporting event, something that 9 00:00:38,159 --> 00:00:41,479 Speaker 1: you can participate in if you have the desire, So 10 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:45,000 Speaker 1: let us rejoin the show. We need to move into 11 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:49,040 Speaker 1: more of a discussion about radio specifically, because even though 12 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:52,800 Speaker 1: radio is a subset of electromagnetic radiation, it covers an 13 00:00:53,080 --> 00:00:57,760 Speaker 1: enormous range of frequencies and therefore wavelength and not all 14 00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:01,520 Speaker 1: frequencies behave the same on Earth. True. Yeah, so you've 15 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:04,560 Speaker 1: got different bands you might have You've seen terms like 16 00:01:04,880 --> 00:01:10,080 Speaker 1: HF for VHF you HF. These are specific sub bands 17 00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:13,680 Speaker 1: of frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum, all what we would 18 00:01:13,720 --> 00:01:16,800 Speaker 1: call radio frequencies. But um, so yeah, you've got like 19 00:01:16,880 --> 00:01:20,680 Speaker 1: high frequency, very high frequency, and a lot of what 20 00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:22,240 Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about today is going to be 21 00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:25,520 Speaker 1: in the VHF part of the spectrum, that very high frequency. 22 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:28,440 Speaker 1: So yeah, this radio spectrum is pretty broad, and it 23 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:31,160 Speaker 1: goes well beyond the types of radio that that the 24 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:34,560 Speaker 1: typical person can listen into, unless you happen to be 25 00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:37,240 Speaker 1: one of those folks who you know, maybe you operate 26 00:01:37,280 --> 00:01:40,119 Speaker 1: a maritime radio to help with navigation, in which case 27 00:01:40,160 --> 00:01:42,720 Speaker 1: you are using frequencies most of us don't touch. But 28 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:47,040 Speaker 1: or maybe you're are a doctor working with experimental medical 29 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:51,520 Speaker 1: imaging equipment, in which case you're using radio frequencies on 30 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:54,440 Speaker 1: the opposite end of the spectrum, because maritime radio uses 31 00:01:55,040 --> 00:02:00,520 Speaker 1: very low frequency UH radio waves, whereas medical imaging uses 32 00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:06,000 Speaker 1: extremely high frequency radio waves. So the range goes from 33 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:10,080 Speaker 1: the bottom is at like three hurts, which means you 34 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:13,160 Speaker 1: get three waves passing a given point in a second, 35 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:17,120 Speaker 1: all the way up to tremendously high frequency, which is 36 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:21,160 Speaker 1: three thousand giga hurts or three trillion hurts, meaning three 37 00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:25,440 Speaker 1: trillion waves pass a given point within a second. Actually 38 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:29,239 Speaker 1: like extremely low frequency. More because the acronym is elf 39 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:35,400 Speaker 1: so elves, elves communicate kind of like nts, very long 40 00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:38,880 Speaker 1: wave forms. The elves at the bottom of the ocean yeah, 41 00:02:39,160 --> 00:02:42,760 Speaker 1: that's where we've stuck them. So again, you know, we 42 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:45,000 Speaker 1: talked about how all these waves are traveling at the 43 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:47,480 Speaker 1: speed of light, so it's really just the number of 44 00:02:47,480 --> 00:02:49,680 Speaker 1: waves that pass a given point in a second that 45 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:52,560 Speaker 1: tells you a frequency, not speed of transmission, because that's 46 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:55,200 Speaker 1: going to remain the same no matter what. So, um, 47 00:02:55,560 --> 00:02:58,760 Speaker 1: a three hurts frequency wave, we'll tell you that the 48 00:02:58,840 --> 00:03:01,520 Speaker 1: wave length or that particular wave has to be a 49 00:03:01,639 --> 00:03:06,239 Speaker 1: one hundred thousand kilometers in length. That's a long radio 50 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:09,160 Speaker 1: wave hundred thousand kilometers. Meanwhile, in the opposite ind of 51 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:10,560 Speaker 1: the spectrum, if you go all the way to that 52 00:03:10,639 --> 00:03:13,760 Speaker 1: three thousand giga Hurts wave, you're talking about a hundred 53 00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:19,760 Speaker 1: micrometers in length. So teeny tiny micrometers are very tiny, 54 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:23,720 Speaker 1: huge difference obviously in the length of these waves. Um. 55 00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:27,640 Speaker 1: So that's why you know, the whole frequency wavelength relationship 56 00:03:27,720 --> 00:03:31,520 Speaker 1: is important. So we use the different frequencies for very 57 00:03:31,600 --> 00:03:34,840 Speaker 1: specific purposes. It's also important to point out that this 58 00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:39,480 Speaker 1: is not universal. The There are usually some sort of 59 00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:43,800 Speaker 1: governing body within a country that designates what frequencies can 60 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:46,720 Speaker 1: be used for what purposes. In the US, we have 61 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:50,200 Speaker 1: the FCC, uh, so if you're looking at the terror 62 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:55,480 Speaker 1: hurt side of things, that's that ultra ultra high or 63 00:03:55,680 --> 00:04:00,600 Speaker 1: terribly high frequency as is some sometimes referred to. It's 64 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:03,800 Speaker 1: for medical imaging, that that kind of stuff also molecular 65 00:04:03,880 --> 00:04:08,480 Speaker 1: dynamics measurements and other high tech information. Uh. The extremely 66 00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:12,080 Speaker 1: low frequency would be like radio communication with submarines. You 67 00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:15,640 Speaker 1: can't you can't use very high frequency when communicating with 68 00:04:15,640 --> 00:04:19,560 Speaker 1: stuff that's underwater. The waves attenue are the radio waves 69 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:22,560 Speaker 1: get attenuated by the ocean water, and that creates problems 70 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:25,840 Speaker 1: with communication. But it's less of a problem with with 71 00:04:26,279 --> 00:04:30,080 Speaker 1: extremely low frequency and very long wavelength radio transmissions. What 72 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:33,279 Speaker 1: about the kind of radio we think of as standard radio, 73 00:04:33,400 --> 00:04:36,799 Speaker 1: as in radio accessible to the average consumer AM FM, 74 00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:39,479 Speaker 1: That kind of stuff, so AM would be in the 75 00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:43,120 Speaker 1: medium frequency. Medium frequency ranges from three killer hurts to 76 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:46,440 Speaker 1: three thousand kill hurts or three mega hurts. If you 77 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:50,039 Speaker 1: prefer AM radio specifically in the United States is in 78 00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:52,880 Speaker 1: a even more narrow range than that, right, that's all 79 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:55,800 Speaker 1: of medium frequency AM radio in the US goes from 80 00:04:55,800 --> 00:04:59,360 Speaker 1: five killer hurts to one thousand, seven hundred kill hurts 81 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:03,119 Speaker 1: or one point seven mega hurts. UM if you wanted 82 00:05:03,160 --> 00:05:05,720 Speaker 1: to talk about shortwave radio. That's from five point nine 83 00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:08,440 Speaker 1: mega hurts to twenty six point one Mega hurts. CB 84 00:05:08,680 --> 00:05:11,240 Speaker 1: goes to twenty six point nine six mega hurts to 85 00:05:11,279 --> 00:05:14,520 Speaker 1: twenty seven point for one mega hurts, and so on 86 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:16,919 Speaker 1: and so far. So so FM radio is gonna be 87 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:19,080 Speaker 1: that's mega hurts, right, So it's going to be around 88 00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:23,680 Speaker 1: around MEA hurts exactly. So yeah, because power nine and 89 00:05:23,760 --> 00:05:25,640 Speaker 1: nine that would be at ninety nine mega hurts right 90 00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:31,440 Speaker 1: one I think originally maybe high thing, yeah, and goes 91 00:05:31,520 --> 00:05:35,320 Speaker 1: up to like one oh seven I think somewhere around there. So, uh, 92 00:05:35,520 --> 00:05:39,039 Speaker 1: Different countries of allocad their broad broadcast spectrum in different ways, 93 00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:42,160 Speaker 1: so not everyone follows those exact same rules. There's usually 94 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:47,000 Speaker 1: some overlap. Um. Now, when you know something about the 95 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:51,480 Speaker 1: wavelength of the radio frequency, that tells you what you 96 00:05:51,520 --> 00:05:54,200 Speaker 1: need how you need to build your antenna right, Because 97 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:58,320 Speaker 1: the length of your antenna is dependent upon the frequencies 98 00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:00,719 Speaker 1: you're looking for. You want your antenna to be the 99 00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:05,680 Speaker 1: right length to resonate properly with the radio frequencies you're 100 00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:08,760 Speaker 1: searching for. And there's no such thing as really a 101 00:06:08,880 --> 00:06:12,720 Speaker 1: perfect universal antenna that can equally pick up all frequencies 102 00:06:12,760 --> 00:06:18,000 Speaker 1: across the radio range. Now you might wonder, how can 103 00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:22,360 Speaker 1: you have like a pocket AM radio, because if AM 104 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:28,000 Speaker 1: radio is broadcasting in the medium frequency and has pretty 105 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:32,360 Speaker 1: long radio waves, and you need to have an antenna 106 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:35,039 Speaker 1: that is the right length to pick that up. Typically 107 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:37,760 Speaker 1: we're talking about half the length of the wavelength of 108 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:41,640 Speaker 1: the radio frequency you're looking at right, So if you're 109 00:06:41,640 --> 00:06:44,960 Speaker 1: talking about like a a wavelength that's a hundred meters long, 110 00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:48,119 Speaker 1: then you're looking at our radio antenna that's between forty 111 00:06:48,160 --> 00:06:50,760 Speaker 1: and fifty meters. How the heck do you fit that 112 00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:54,760 Speaker 1: on like that? That seems ridiculous. Well, the antenna for 113 00:06:55,040 --> 00:06:58,880 Speaker 1: a M radios are typically wire that are UH and 114 00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:01,160 Speaker 1: that wire is wrapped around the core. Because it doesn't 115 00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:04,280 Speaker 1: matter if the wires straight or not straight or whatever. 116 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:08,120 Speaker 1: You can you can coil it inside a device and 117 00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:10,360 Speaker 1: have it completely housed within the radio. So if you 118 00:07:10,400 --> 00:07:13,160 Speaker 1: were to open up an AM radio, chances are you'd 119 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:16,000 Speaker 1: find a wire where one end is not attached to 120 00:07:16,040 --> 00:07:19,239 Speaker 1: anything and it's just wrapped around around around around around 121 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:22,840 Speaker 1: a core of some sort. That's the antenna. It's it's 122 00:07:22,840 --> 00:07:26,400 Speaker 1: not like it's providing any sort of electrical uh. Stimulation 123 00:07:26,440 --> 00:07:29,520 Speaker 1: apart from conver you know, pulling in radio waves and 124 00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:35,640 Speaker 1: having that induce an electric current. So, uh, that's why 125 00:07:36,240 --> 00:07:41,680 Speaker 1: AM radios don't necessarily have a visible, incredibly long antenna um. 126 00:07:42,440 --> 00:07:44,960 Speaker 1: And this is important when it comes to things like 127 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:49,240 Speaker 1: transmitter hunting. Yeah, because if you look at transmitter hunting 128 00:07:49,280 --> 00:07:51,920 Speaker 1: sites and we'll get into the specifics of the sport 129 00:07:51,960 --> 00:07:54,920 Speaker 1: here in a minute, you see a lot of jargon 130 00:07:55,160 --> 00:07:58,680 Speaker 1: that obviously has to do with stuff about like antenna 131 00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:00,840 Speaker 1: length and frequencies and stuff like that. One of the 132 00:08:00,880 --> 00:08:02,920 Speaker 1: common things you'll see is like the idea of a 133 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:07,520 Speaker 1: two M hunt. The the the two M arena is 134 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:10,880 Speaker 1: often considered the sweet spot for for transmitter hunting. Now, 135 00:08:10,880 --> 00:08:13,480 Speaker 1: what does that mean When a HAM radio enthusiast talks 136 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:16,680 Speaker 1: about two meters and they're telling you specifically about the 137 00:08:16,760 --> 00:08:18,880 Speaker 1: size of the antenna that they are using. The two 138 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:22,840 Speaker 1: meters is a pretty decent sized antenna, right, like you know, 139 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:26,040 Speaker 1: a meters. Like here in the United States, we don't 140 00:08:26,080 --> 00:08:29,040 Speaker 1: necessarily think in terms of meters that frequently because we're 141 00:08:29,080 --> 00:08:32,800 Speaker 1: not on the metric system. But yeah, that's the reason 142 00:08:32,920 --> 00:08:36,680 Speaker 1: is because the frequencies that are being used by HAM 143 00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:41,320 Speaker 1: radio enthusiasts are falling in the VHF radio frequency band, 144 00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:44,880 Speaker 1: that very high frequency. Now, that frequency band goes from 145 00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:48,120 Speaker 1: thirty mega hurts to three hundred mega hurts, and the 146 00:08:48,240 --> 00:08:51,360 Speaker 1: radio wavelengths go from ten meters down to one meter. 147 00:08:52,160 --> 00:08:55,840 Speaker 1: And we're using descending sizes because remember as frequency increases, 148 00:08:56,320 --> 00:09:01,280 Speaker 1: the wavelength decreases. Right, So if you if you're hunting 149 00:09:01,400 --> 00:09:07,680 Speaker 1: for a radio signal that's somewhere and that uh, that 150 00:09:08,320 --> 00:09:11,800 Speaker 1: four to five meter range, you need a two meter 151 00:09:11,920 --> 00:09:15,560 Speaker 1: antenna in order to pick them up effectively to to 152 00:09:15,640 --> 00:09:20,160 Speaker 1: have it be particularly sensitive to those transmissions. Now, the 153 00:09:20,200 --> 00:09:24,560 Speaker 1: specific range within VHF designated for amateur radio use is 154 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:27,200 Speaker 1: in the United States a hundred forty four mega hurts 155 00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:30,439 Speaker 1: two hundred forty eight mega hurts. It's a little different 156 00:09:30,440 --> 00:09:32,800 Speaker 1: than Europe where it's one forty four to one forty 157 00:09:32,960 --> 00:09:37,480 Speaker 1: six and not quite as wide a range. Give us 158 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:40,520 Speaker 1: our two mega hurts. Come on, yeah, and well, to 159 00:09:40,559 --> 00:09:43,440 Speaker 1: be fair though, it's not the only band for amateur radio. 160 00:09:43,520 --> 00:09:47,319 Speaker 1: Amateur radio actually has bands and several different frequency ranges. 161 00:09:47,800 --> 00:09:51,280 Speaker 1: It's just for the VHF frequency range. It's this specific 162 00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:58,680 Speaker 1: range of frequencies from in the US six in Europe um. 163 00:09:58,720 --> 00:10:03,520 Speaker 1: But you can also find amateur radio frequency bands in low, medium, 164 00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:05,600 Speaker 1: and high frequency as well as all the way up 165 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:08,520 Speaker 1: to like terribly fast terribly high frequency. You can find 166 00:10:08,559 --> 00:10:11,920 Speaker 1: them up there too. Now because of the wavelengths involved, 167 00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:13,880 Speaker 1: that two meter antenna is best able to pick up 168 00:10:13,880 --> 00:10:18,440 Speaker 1: those transmissions because it resonates more readily with transmissions in 169 00:10:18,440 --> 00:10:22,080 Speaker 1: that frequency, Like it can pick up stuff outside of it, 170 00:10:22,120 --> 00:10:24,960 Speaker 1: but not as effectively as the stuff it was designed for. 171 00:10:25,040 --> 00:10:28,480 Speaker 1: It's that's the sweet spot. So you can build your 172 00:10:28,480 --> 00:10:30,360 Speaker 1: own if you want to do. There are a lot 173 00:10:30,440 --> 00:10:34,160 Speaker 1: of different resources, both online and in libraries that will 174 00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:37,160 Speaker 1: teach you how to build an antenna. I watched one 175 00:10:37,200 --> 00:10:39,040 Speaker 1: that actually was so cool that I think I might 176 00:10:39,080 --> 00:10:41,280 Speaker 1: do it as a project here and how stuff works 177 00:10:41,280 --> 00:10:43,280 Speaker 1: and do a video about it. What kind of antenna 178 00:10:43,320 --> 00:10:45,480 Speaker 1: was it would be? It would be a quad antenna, 179 00:10:45,600 --> 00:10:47,200 Speaker 1: but I'll talk about a little bit a little bit later. 180 00:10:47,360 --> 00:10:49,439 Speaker 1: Mostly because I've been thinking about trying to build a 181 00:10:49,480 --> 00:10:52,280 Speaker 1: Yachi antenna. Yeah, well that would be great, some of them, 182 00:10:52,440 --> 00:10:57,360 Speaker 1: as some of the Hams pronounced it, yagg Yeah. I 183 00:10:57,400 --> 00:11:00,640 Speaker 1: think that that project would be really kind of fun, 184 00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:07,240 Speaker 1: and also I like the way a quad antenna can look. 185 00:11:07,320 --> 00:11:09,559 Speaker 1: I'll talk more about that in a little bit. Anyway, well, 186 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:11,840 Speaker 1: I will I challenge you to an antenna build off. 187 00:11:11,920 --> 00:11:14,440 Speaker 1: That sounds great, Yeah, let's do it solely. Do it 188 00:11:14,880 --> 00:11:17,040 Speaker 1: to be fair, It's way easier to do it now 189 00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:19,000 Speaker 1: than it was in the old hobbyist days where you 190 00:11:19,040 --> 00:11:21,120 Speaker 1: had to do all the calculations by hand. Now there 191 00:11:21,160 --> 00:11:24,240 Speaker 1: are so many online tools that will allow you to 192 00:11:24,320 --> 00:11:27,400 Speaker 1: just plug in what you're what you're attempting to do, 193 00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:29,760 Speaker 1: and he'll tell you exactly how long each element. I've 194 00:11:29,800 --> 00:11:32,640 Speaker 1: been to exactly one of these calculators. I found one 195 00:11:32,679 --> 00:11:35,600 Speaker 1: online that says like, Okay, here's the frequency I want 196 00:11:35,640 --> 00:11:39,200 Speaker 1: to look for, here's the decibel gain I want um, 197 00:11:39,360 --> 00:11:41,880 Speaker 1: and then it will tell you the relative size of 198 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:46,719 Speaker 1: your of your elements for your antenna. Yeah. So, if 199 00:11:46,760 --> 00:11:49,480 Speaker 1: you are a transmitter hunter, chances are you have multiple 200 00:11:49,520 --> 00:11:53,480 Speaker 1: antenna or as I put, a veritable array of antenna 201 00:11:54,160 --> 00:11:58,720 Speaker 1: perhaps a literal array of antenna's, depending upon what you're 202 00:11:58,760 --> 00:12:00,920 Speaker 1: you're depending upon how much in time you have to 203 00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:04,480 Speaker 1: put into the hobby. But then we also have another 204 00:12:04,880 --> 00:12:08,760 Speaker 1: element that that you put in our notes a question. Yeah, 205 00:12:08,840 --> 00:12:13,560 Speaker 1: so sometimes you'll hear or you'll read about people in 206 00:12:13,640 --> 00:12:18,080 Speaker 1: the transmitter hunting community talking about harmonics, you know, so 207 00:12:18,120 --> 00:12:20,000 Speaker 1: they'll say, maybe, oh, I got very close to the 208 00:12:20,040 --> 00:12:23,400 Speaker 1: transmitter and I was I was overwhelmed. What could I do? 209 00:12:23,720 --> 00:12:26,800 Speaker 1: You know, I I suddenly I couldn't isolate the direction 210 00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:29,560 Speaker 1: of the signal anymore. And somebody else might say, well, 211 00:12:29,600 --> 00:12:33,480 Speaker 1: try looking for the third harmonic. I love that because 212 00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:38,720 Speaker 1: it sounds very cryptic, and in the know it sounds 213 00:12:38,720 --> 00:12:42,319 Speaker 1: a little Star Trek esque in a way. So harmonics 214 00:12:42,360 --> 00:12:46,520 Speaker 1: are into drum multiples of the fundamental frequency, which is 215 00:12:46,559 --> 00:12:49,079 Speaker 1: a fancy way of saying you start with whatever frequency 216 00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:53,040 Speaker 1: you're looking for, because generally speaking, transmitter hunters there's a 217 00:12:53,040 --> 00:12:56,920 Speaker 1: specific frequency that they know they are searching for, otherwise 218 00:12:57,400 --> 00:13:00,240 Speaker 1: it would be needle in a haystack, right. Plus they're 219 00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:04,960 Speaker 1: limited anyway by the range that amateur operators are allowed 220 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:08,840 Speaker 1: to use. So you start with whatever the target frequency 221 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:11,560 Speaker 1: is and you multiply it by integers in order to 222 00:13:11,559 --> 00:13:14,520 Speaker 1: get the harmonic. So the first harmonic is the fundamental 223 00:13:14,600 --> 00:13:18,320 Speaker 1: frequency because you just multiplied by one, got it. So 224 00:13:18,440 --> 00:13:22,440 Speaker 1: third harmonic you multiply by three, fifth harmonic you multiply 225 00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:26,400 Speaker 1: by five. Both of those are particularly useful in transmitter hunting. 226 00:13:26,920 --> 00:13:30,640 Speaker 1: So the typical frequency you'd be hunting for is one 227 00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:35,360 Speaker 1: forty six point five six five mega hurts. Now, if 228 00:13:35,400 --> 00:13:37,560 Speaker 1: you want to find the third harmonic, you multiply that 229 00:13:37,679 --> 00:13:41,120 Speaker 1: number by three. That gives you four d thirty nine 230 00:13:41,160 --> 00:13:44,839 Speaker 1: point six nine five mega hurts. The fifth harmonic you 231 00:13:44,920 --> 00:13:48,080 Speaker 1: multiplied by five. That gets you seven two point eight 232 00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:51,520 Speaker 1: to five mega hurts. Now, each of those harmonics has 233 00:13:51,559 --> 00:13:54,680 Speaker 1: a weaker signal than the fundamental frequency, but it would 234 00:13:54,720 --> 00:13:57,400 Speaker 1: be related to the fundamental It is related to it, 235 00:13:57,480 --> 00:14:01,000 Speaker 1: but it is a weaker signal. Now, if you're when 236 00:14:01,040 --> 00:14:04,559 Speaker 1: you get close to one of these transmitters, chances are 237 00:14:04,720 --> 00:14:07,320 Speaker 1: the signal strength as such that you are it's hard 238 00:14:07,360 --> 00:14:10,199 Speaker 1: for you to get any useful information right, Like you 239 00:14:10,280 --> 00:14:12,400 Speaker 1: might if you have a directional antenna, which we'll talk 240 00:14:12,400 --> 00:14:14,360 Speaker 1: about in a minute, you might be sweeping it all 241 00:14:14,400 --> 00:14:17,120 Speaker 1: around and you're just maxing out your receiver no matter 242 00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:20,000 Speaker 1: what direction you pointed in right because the signal it's 243 00:14:20,040 --> 00:14:21,960 Speaker 1: not like you're right on top of the transmitter, but 244 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:26,720 Speaker 1: you're close enough where the directionality is no longer useful. 245 00:14:27,080 --> 00:14:29,560 Speaker 1: It's kind of like you can hear someone yelling off 246 00:14:29,600 --> 00:14:32,560 Speaker 1: in the distance and you're blindfolded, so you know generally 247 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:35,400 Speaker 1: what direction they're in, But as you get really close 248 00:14:35,400 --> 00:14:39,520 Speaker 1: and they're yelling and it's an echoe area, you can't 249 00:14:39,600 --> 00:14:42,520 Speaker 1: really tell where the noise is coming from necessarily. It's 250 00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:45,720 Speaker 1: kind of like that as an analogy. So if you're 251 00:14:45,760 --> 00:14:48,560 Speaker 1: able to switch to one of these harmonics because it's 252 00:14:48,560 --> 00:14:51,280 Speaker 1: a weaker signal, you can get a little more precise 253 00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:53,640 Speaker 1: with that directionality you can use if you have an 254 00:14:53,640 --> 00:14:56,600 Speaker 1: antenna that can switch to one of these signals, or 255 00:14:56,640 --> 00:15:00,320 Speaker 1: you have an antenna specifically made to detect those harmon necks, 256 00:15:00,800 --> 00:15:04,720 Speaker 1: then you are able to switch to a weaker signal 257 00:15:04,760 --> 00:15:07,400 Speaker 1: which is not going to overwhelm your antenna so quickly, 258 00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:10,960 Speaker 1: and you can hone in on the direction a little 259 00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:13,320 Speaker 1: more precisely than you would if you had to rely 260 00:15:13,560 --> 00:15:18,880 Speaker 1: on your your chief two meter antenna. Right. So that's 261 00:15:18,880 --> 00:15:22,960 Speaker 1: why harmonics are important. Uh, and we well, we'll talk 262 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:25,640 Speaker 1: a little bit more about the Yaggy antenna's in a second. 263 00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:30,760 Speaker 1: Yaggy antenna more formally is the Yogi Uda antenna, which 264 00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:34,520 Speaker 1: sounds like it should be a Star Wars character. Right, Oh, 265 00:15:34,680 --> 00:15:41,000 Speaker 1: you seek yagi Uda. It's a directional antenna that looks 266 00:15:41,080 --> 00:15:43,800 Speaker 1: kind of like one of those old TV antenna's, like 267 00:15:43,840 --> 00:15:46,800 Speaker 1: the old arials that you would see on top of houses, 268 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:50,280 Speaker 1: typically in the movie like Uh Willy Wonka and the 269 00:15:50,360 --> 00:15:53,880 Speaker 1: Chocolate Factory. Yeah, it has It has one long boom 270 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:56,160 Speaker 1: in the middle as well for two a central poll 271 00:15:56,520 --> 00:16:00,440 Speaker 1: on which are mounted parallel elements. These elements are does 272 00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:04,080 Speaker 1: the shaping and receiving of the signal or transmitting. You 273 00:16:04,080 --> 00:16:06,960 Speaker 1: can have a transmitter or receiver. Sure, yeah, antenna they're 274 00:16:06,960 --> 00:16:10,120 Speaker 1: meant to be both transmitters and receivers, right. Typically the 275 00:16:10,160 --> 00:16:12,960 Speaker 1: antenna that that I use and most people use, I 276 00:16:12,960 --> 00:16:16,720 Speaker 1: would imagine are simply used as receivers, except when you 277 00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:19,680 Speaker 1: get into things like phones and stuff. Obviously, any any 278 00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:22,880 Speaker 1: phone type device has both a transmitter and a receiver. 279 00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:27,440 Speaker 1: Otherwise it's just a radio, so not terribly useful if 280 00:16:27,440 --> 00:16:29,560 Speaker 1: you want to make a call. Anyone does anymore, But 281 00:16:29,640 --> 00:16:32,520 Speaker 1: I digress. Well, anyway, we'll talk about the specific sent 282 00:16:32,600 --> 00:16:36,760 Speaker 1: a minute, but the the point of these parallel elements 283 00:16:36,760 --> 00:16:39,960 Speaker 1: on the Augie antenna is to create this directional effect 284 00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:45,360 Speaker 1: where a signal is detected if you are pointing right 285 00:16:45,400 --> 00:16:47,800 Speaker 1: at it, but it is killed if you are pointing 286 00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:51,120 Speaker 1: perpendicular to it right right. So the idea being that 287 00:16:51,160 --> 00:16:53,760 Speaker 1: if you turn to your right and the signal suddenly 288 00:16:53,840 --> 00:16:58,320 Speaker 1: drops out, you know that the direction to the right 289 00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:00,520 Speaker 1: is not the way to go used to turning to 290 00:17:00,560 --> 00:17:02,520 Speaker 1: the left. And you find where the signal drops out, 291 00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:06,760 Speaker 1: you can eliminate that. It narrows down the range where 292 00:17:06,800 --> 00:17:11,840 Speaker 1: the transmission can actually originate. And since transmitter hunting is 293 00:17:11,880 --> 00:17:15,680 Speaker 1: all about finding that transmitter, that's important. And we're gonna 294 00:17:15,720 --> 00:17:19,440 Speaker 1: talk more about transmitter hunting and really dive into the 295 00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:22,960 Speaker 1: hobby and the sport in just a moment. But first 296 00:17:23,200 --> 00:17:35,440 Speaker 1: let's take another quick break to thank our sponsor. Alright, 297 00:17:35,520 --> 00:17:38,080 Speaker 1: we're back, and Joe, I want you to tell me 298 00:17:38,359 --> 00:17:43,000 Speaker 1: more about this sport of transmitter hunting, a sport I 299 00:17:43,040 --> 00:17:47,679 Speaker 1: did not know existed until you brought this topic to 300 00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:52,000 Speaker 1: my attention. Uh. Yeah, so I at some point I 301 00:17:52,040 --> 00:17:54,399 Speaker 1: want to try this. I've never done it myself, but 302 00:17:54,520 --> 00:17:57,320 Speaker 1: I've been reading about it over the past couple of months, 303 00:17:57,320 --> 00:17:59,480 Speaker 1: and I've watched a few videos of people trying it 304 00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:03,480 Speaker 1: out on you tube, um, and it looks very interesting. 305 00:18:03,560 --> 00:18:06,800 Speaker 1: So the sport is known as transmitter hunting also t 306 00:18:07,119 --> 00:18:12,080 Speaker 1: hunting or fox hunting. UH, And a standard game goes 307 00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:15,280 Speaker 1: like this. You've got one participant who is the hider. 308 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:19,080 Speaker 1: This is sort of the dungeon master of the fox hunt, 309 00:18:19,840 --> 00:18:23,960 Speaker 1: and the hider puts together a radio transmitter appropriate for 310 00:18:24,040 --> 00:18:26,639 Speaker 1: the scale of the hunt. So you might use a 311 00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:31,439 Speaker 1: small handheld transmitter stashed inside an old ammunition can for 312 00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:34,679 Speaker 1: a small scale hunt on foot or in a you know, 313 00:18:34,840 --> 00:18:39,680 Speaker 1: small several mile mile area with cars. And in this scenario, 314 00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:42,280 Speaker 1: you would set the transmitter to repeat a signal at 315 00:18:42,320 --> 00:18:48,960 Speaker 1: steady intervals, so it might be like BP beep, bpit beep, beep, 316 00:18:49,840 --> 00:18:52,679 Speaker 1: and then you hide it somewhere, maybe in a public 317 00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:57,240 Speaker 1: park or another reasonably small search area. For large scale hunts, 318 00:18:57,240 --> 00:19:00,520 Speaker 1: you can actually build a powerful antenna capable of insmitting 319 00:19:00,600 --> 00:19:03,080 Speaker 1: miles and miles across state lines. There are people who 320 00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:06,200 Speaker 1: do this in you know, these long all day car 321 00:19:06,280 --> 00:19:08,960 Speaker 1: hunts where they're going a really long way to try 322 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:11,480 Speaker 1: to find a transmitter somewhere out in the desert or something. 323 00:19:11,520 --> 00:19:13,639 Speaker 1: It looks like a lot of fun, and you use it. 324 00:19:13,960 --> 00:19:17,840 Speaker 1: You hunt it using cars or maybe fan boats, you know, 325 00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:20,480 Speaker 1: so you can you can do this in the Everglades. 326 00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:23,399 Speaker 1: I would that's just the way I would like to 327 00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:26,200 Speaker 1: do it. I just all I can imagine is now 328 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:29,080 Speaker 1: we we talked earlier about possibly making a movie that 329 00:19:29,240 --> 00:19:32,240 Speaker 1: this movie would now have to star Bert Reynolds. But 330 00:19:32,480 --> 00:19:35,440 Speaker 1: if you are hiding a transmitter, there are some social 331 00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:38,200 Speaker 1: and safety concerns you probably want to keep in mind. 332 00:19:38,560 --> 00:19:41,439 Speaker 1: Makes sense. Imagine, for example, you are out at a 333 00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:44,640 Speaker 1: public park with your children and you see some creepy 334 00:19:44,720 --> 00:19:48,439 Speaker 1: loaner with an antenna attached to their van pull up 335 00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:51,040 Speaker 1: beside the park and then put a bunch of electronics 336 00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:53,720 Speaker 1: inside an ammunition can and hide it in the bushes 337 00:19:53,760 --> 00:19:56,440 Speaker 1: next to the sandbox. I would say that would raise 338 00:19:56,520 --> 00:20:00,600 Speaker 1: at least one, possibly two red flags. Right, So you 339 00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:02,960 Speaker 1: probably first of all, need to be careful where you 340 00:20:03,040 --> 00:20:06,199 Speaker 1: hide your transmitters. You need to uh, if it's you know, 341 00:20:06,320 --> 00:20:09,200 Speaker 1: in a place where you would need permission, get permission first. 342 00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:12,840 Speaker 1: In any case, if you're doing transmitter hunting, I've I've 343 00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:14,840 Speaker 1: heard that it is a good idea to notify the 344 00:20:14,840 --> 00:20:16,920 Speaker 1: police ahead of time that they're going to be people 345 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:20,159 Speaker 1: running around with antenna's and that you're gonna be hiding 346 00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:22,520 Speaker 1: a thing and let let the police know where you're 347 00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:24,919 Speaker 1: hiding it so that it doesn't get mistaken for a 348 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:29,359 Speaker 1: bomb or some other nefarious device. Yeah, it also looks 349 00:20:29,359 --> 00:20:31,639 Speaker 1: like it's a good idea to put some writing on 350 00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:38,320 Speaker 1: the device warning people that it's not dangerous, although honestly 351 00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:41,919 Speaker 1: you wouldn't believe it. Yeah. I mean like if I were, 352 00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:44,919 Speaker 1: if I were the type to make a device that 353 00:20:45,080 --> 00:20:48,879 Speaker 1: was intended to be harmful to people, I can't imagine 354 00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:52,199 Speaker 1: that I would have the ethics to avoid writing this 355 00:20:52,320 --> 00:20:55,440 Speaker 1: totally will not harm you. It's like, I'm pretty sure 356 00:20:55,440 --> 00:20:58,240 Speaker 1: a box of hot pocket says this is not dangerous 357 00:20:58,320 --> 00:21:01,480 Speaker 1: on it. Yeah, I mean it all but but but 358 00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:04,440 Speaker 1: definitely go to that extra effort. Lah. We we were 359 00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:06,960 Speaker 1: talking offline about this before we came in here to 360 00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:10,280 Speaker 1: record the episode, and the world is a very different 361 00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:14,520 Speaker 1: place than what it was when. Uh. Transmitter hunting was 362 00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:19,000 Speaker 1: really one of those hobbies that that that people could 363 00:21:19,200 --> 00:21:22,760 Speaker 1: essentially go anywhere and play. No one really noticed because 364 00:21:22,760 --> 00:21:26,760 Speaker 1: they didn't even It was just beneath the public consciousness. 365 00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:30,199 Speaker 1: Joe found a book and lent it to me that 366 00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:33,040 Speaker 1: I got to read, and in it they describe a 367 00:21:33,119 --> 00:21:38,159 Speaker 1: situation where one person who was hiding a transmitter didn't 368 00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:40,840 Speaker 1: have the time to actually do it himself, and so 369 00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:44,880 Speaker 1: entrusted the transmitter to two other people who said, oh, yeah, 370 00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:47,200 Speaker 1: we'll totally hide it where you told us, and instead 371 00:21:47,280 --> 00:21:49,760 Speaker 1: they went and hit it under an overpass. And I 372 00:21:49,800 --> 00:21:53,679 Speaker 1: thought those days are over. You would get into so 373 00:21:53,760 --> 00:21:56,760 Speaker 1: much trouble now because you were hilarious prank back then. 374 00:21:56,840 --> 00:21:59,280 Speaker 1: Now freaks people out. Yeah, you remember the Moon and Knights. 375 00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:03,920 Speaker 1: Those are characters from Aquitine Hunger Force, where they they 376 00:22:04,560 --> 00:22:07,879 Speaker 1: Cartoon Network had done this promotional stunt where they put 377 00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:12,520 Speaker 1: very simple led displays of the moonaites over certain bridges, 378 00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:15,840 Speaker 1: and it freaked people out. They thought perhaps it was 379 00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:19,800 Speaker 1: like a weird warning about an explosive that had been 380 00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:23,000 Speaker 1: attached to said overpasses. Turned out, of course, no, it 381 00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:25,600 Speaker 1: was just a promotional stunt, but no one knew that 382 00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:27,400 Speaker 1: at the time. And in the world that we live 383 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:30,960 Speaker 1: in today, it's probably better to take those extra precautions 384 00:22:31,359 --> 00:22:35,919 Speaker 1: and to uh to let whatever authority oversees the area 385 00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:38,399 Speaker 1: that you're planting the transmitter in to know about it 386 00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:41,119 Speaker 1: ahead of time, get approval that kind of thing, and 387 00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:43,959 Speaker 1: take these extra steps to make sure you don't inside 388 00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:47,480 Speaker 1: a panic. By the way, you mentioned this book, and 389 00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:50,679 Speaker 1: I just wanted to throughout the name of it because 390 00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:52,040 Speaker 1: as I was looking at this too. It's a book 391 00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:56,960 Speaker 1: I order called Transmitter Hunting Radio Direction Finding Simplified. It's 392 00:22:57,000 --> 00:22:59,560 Speaker 1: from the late nineteen eighties and it is a radio 393 00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:05,360 Speaker 1: hobbyest manual by Joseph Moel and Thomas in Curly. An 394 00:23:05,359 --> 00:23:08,879 Speaker 1: exhaustive hobbyist manual. Well, they've got a lot of projects 395 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:11,480 Speaker 1: and stuff back then for building different antenna types, but 396 00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:14,240 Speaker 1: also just sort of an overview of what the sport 397 00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:17,239 Speaker 1: looks like, you know when people practice it. Uh So, 398 00:23:17,359 --> 00:23:19,680 Speaker 1: when you when you get into a transmitter hunt, you've 399 00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:24,760 Speaker 1: got the transmitter hidden somewhere and you've got some boundaries established, 400 00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:28,239 Speaker 1: and then the players are set loose. They're like the 401 00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:30,760 Speaker 1: dogs on a fox hunt, which I assume is where 402 00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:35,280 Speaker 1: the name comes from and not some other counterintuitive naming scheme. Uh. 403 00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:37,280 Speaker 1: But they know what to listen for, so they've got 404 00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:41,600 Speaker 1: the frequency established, they know what the signal is, but 405 00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:45,960 Speaker 1: they've got to somehow find the physical location of the transmitter. Uh. Now, 406 00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:49,720 Speaker 1: once you think you have isolated the direction from which 407 00:23:49,720 --> 00:23:51,560 Speaker 1: the signal is coming, and in just a second, we'll 408 00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:53,920 Speaker 1: talk about ways you could do that, some different equipment 409 00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:57,280 Speaker 1: you could have, but typically you'll have some kind of 410 00:23:57,320 --> 00:24:00,640 Speaker 1: antennae or device that gets you a bearing. So you've 411 00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:04,000 Speaker 1: got a line to where you think that the signal 412 00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:06,359 Speaker 1: is coming from, and then from there. There are a 413 00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:09,439 Speaker 1: couple of primary ways you can hunt. One is the 414 00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:12,960 Speaker 1: simple way, which is just chasing the bearing. Even this 415 00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:15,119 Speaker 1: is not as simple as it sounds. It is that 416 00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:19,439 Speaker 1: you found you found a direction and you're like, okay, 417 00:24:19,440 --> 00:24:23,280 Speaker 1: well the transmission is coming from the southeast, so let's 418 00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:25,720 Speaker 1: just get in the car and travel as close to 419 00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:28,800 Speaker 1: southeast as we possibly can for a while, and then 420 00:24:28,840 --> 00:24:31,239 Speaker 1: we'll jump out and check again. Yeah, so you just 421 00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:34,760 Speaker 1: follow it and then keep checking the signal. The other 422 00:24:34,800 --> 00:24:39,360 Speaker 1: way would be what's known as triangulation. And so there 423 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:42,600 Speaker 1: imagine you would need a map for this, an actual 424 00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:45,560 Speaker 1: physical paper map would probably you can make marks on 425 00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:49,560 Speaker 1: as accurate distances and measurements. Uh. So you get a 426 00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:52,400 Speaker 1: bearing from one known location, You know where you are, 427 00:24:52,520 --> 00:24:54,840 Speaker 1: You mark your location on the map, and then you 428 00:24:54,880 --> 00:24:57,000 Speaker 1: get a bearing. So you draw a line on the 429 00:24:57,040 --> 00:25:00,280 Speaker 1: map saying okay, it's coming from this direction. You go 430 00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:03,000 Speaker 1: to another place on the map and you mark your 431 00:25:03,040 --> 00:25:05,640 Speaker 1: location there, you get a bearing again, you say, okay, 432 00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:08,159 Speaker 1: it's coming from this direction. Draw another line. Then you 433 00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:11,240 Speaker 1: go to a third place, get a bearing again, and 434 00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:15,080 Speaker 1: maybe do that another time. So, if everything is working correctly, 435 00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:18,879 Speaker 1: those three or more lines should begin to intersect the 436 00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:22,080 Speaker 1: location of the transmitter. There should be a convergence around 437 00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:25,399 Speaker 1: the general area. Now, it may be because of geography 438 00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:29,160 Speaker 1: and buildings and such that the signal you're picking up 439 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:33,359 Speaker 1: is a reflected signal and not not really indicative of 440 00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:36,840 Speaker 1: the actual source of transmission. Right, Like, let's say that 441 00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:39,280 Speaker 1: the source of the transmission is off by a few 442 00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:43,640 Speaker 1: degrees from where you get your bearing because of this reflection. Well, 443 00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:46,080 Speaker 1: as you do your triangulation, you might notice that that 444 00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:48,520 Speaker 1: the this intersection is a little weird, like not all 445 00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:50,840 Speaker 1: the it's not like all the lines are converging on 446 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:54,160 Speaker 1: a single point. It might be that they create a 447 00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:58,119 Speaker 1: trapezoid of possibility. And then the idea is that, all right, well, 448 00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:01,240 Speaker 1: now we're gonna need to get further closer to that 449 00:26:01,280 --> 00:26:04,159 Speaker 1: trapezoid because we know that the transmitter is most likely 450 00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:07,480 Speaker 1: within that area somewhere, but we have to narrow it 451 00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:10,040 Speaker 1: down from there. Either way you go, if you're just 452 00:26:10,119 --> 00:26:12,560 Speaker 1: homing in on a bearing or if you're trying to 453 00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:16,600 Speaker 1: do triangulation. It's not as easy as it sounds, because, 454 00:26:16,640 --> 00:26:19,480 Speaker 1: as you alluded to, the propagation of radio waves can 455 00:26:19,520 --> 00:26:23,040 Speaker 1: be affected by all kinds of stuff, many variables like terrain, 456 00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:28,399 Speaker 1: uh presence of water, reflective obstacles like fences, power lines, 457 00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:32,880 Speaker 1: or even concrete buildings. So a hill can block your 458 00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:35,440 Speaker 1: line of sight to a transmitter. Yes, so if the 459 00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:37,080 Speaker 1: hill a hill can be in the way, you might 460 00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:39,720 Speaker 1: jump out of your vehicle and you're trying to pick 461 00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:42,680 Speaker 1: up the signal and you can't pick up anything or 462 00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:46,240 Speaker 1: or whatever. You so weak that you can't really get 463 00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:48,600 Speaker 1: a reading them where it's coming from. And instead of 464 00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:50,320 Speaker 1: freaking out, it just may mean that you have to 465 00:26:50,359 --> 00:26:52,080 Speaker 1: travel a little bit further to get the hill all 466 00:26:52,119 --> 00:26:55,920 Speaker 1: the way. Also, apparently, sometimes water and shore lines can 467 00:26:56,040 --> 00:26:58,680 Speaker 1: change the apparent direction from which the signal is coming. 468 00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:01,360 Speaker 1: So if the signals coming at over water and then 469 00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:04,200 Speaker 1: there's a shoreline, it can sort of shear the direction 470 00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:09,439 Speaker 1: of it. Um there are some thing obviously, things like 471 00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:14,439 Speaker 1: metal fences, power lines, buildings can create these reflective surfaces. 472 00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:18,119 Speaker 1: That will bounce the signal around. Some environments, like cities, 473 00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:22,560 Speaker 1: are absolutely jammed with radio reflective objects. So if you're 474 00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:26,280 Speaker 1: in a city, the very buildings around you are just 475 00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:29,119 Speaker 1: like bouncing the signal back and forth like a pinball, 476 00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:32,240 Speaker 1: and this can create what's known as a multi path environment. 477 00:27:33,080 --> 00:27:35,560 Speaker 1: So multipath is going to be one of the biggest 478 00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:39,000 Speaker 1: problems to overcome if you are looking for a hidden transmitter, 479 00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:42,600 Speaker 1: especially in a city or other you know, area crowded 480 00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:45,800 Speaker 1: with reflective obstacles, and it just means that you're getting 481 00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:49,360 Speaker 1: the signal, you're tracking from multiple different directions, and you've 482 00:27:49,359 --> 00:27:52,040 Speaker 1: got to have some experience and knowledge of of how 483 00:27:52,119 --> 00:28:03,160 Speaker 1: exactly to work around problems like that. So a good 484 00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:06,480 Speaker 1: hunter needs to have experience and skill, but they also 485 00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:10,480 Speaker 1: are going to need, uh not necessarily need, but it 486 00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:15,399 Speaker 1: really helps to have some specialized equipment, including special antennas 487 00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:19,320 Speaker 1: and receivers. Now, as the the authors of that book 488 00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:24,280 Speaker 1: Joe mentioned point out multiple times, and experienced and skillful 489 00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:29,840 Speaker 1: hunter can use seemingly inferior equipment and still produce a 490 00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:33,800 Speaker 1: better result than someone who has lots of money and 491 00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:36,240 Speaker 1: has dropped it on a bunch of high tech equipment 492 00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:39,080 Speaker 1: but has little to no experience actually using set equipment. 493 00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:42,000 Speaker 1: So there is a lot of art to this. It's 494 00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:45,400 Speaker 1: not just science. There's a bit where, you know, knowing 495 00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:48,960 Speaker 1: kind of having an intuition about how radio waves work 496 00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:52,520 Speaker 1: and the geography that you are in and kind of 497 00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:55,200 Speaker 1: getting an idea of how that could be affecting what 498 00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:59,440 Speaker 1: you are are receiving might be way more helpful than 499 00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:02,800 Speaker 1: just a high tech antenna that is the cost a 500 00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:06,080 Speaker 1: lot of money. Yeah, um, I I have read all 501 00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:08,480 Speaker 1: the authors of this book say, and it does seem 502 00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:10,680 Speaker 1: true to me based also on other things I've read 503 00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:13,920 Speaker 1: that one of the most important pieces of equipment in 504 00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:17,200 Speaker 1: a transmitter hunt is a map. It's having a good map, 505 00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:22,160 Speaker 1: especially like a topographical map that includes surface features and buildings. 506 00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:24,240 Speaker 1: And they also say that, you know, it can become 507 00:29:24,280 --> 00:29:30,600 Speaker 1: incredibly challenging because the the game doesn't necessarily confine itself 508 00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:33,880 Speaker 1: to the area of any given map, so you might 509 00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:38,280 Speaker 1: need multiple maps, and that also becomes a bit of 510 00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:40,520 Speaker 1: a challenge because unless the maps are both produced at 511 00:29:40,560 --> 00:29:44,080 Speaker 1: the same scale, you can't just overlay them, you know, 512 00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:46,880 Speaker 1: and and tape them together or whatever it may be. 513 00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:50,160 Speaker 1: That it requires a lot of math on your part, 514 00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:55,880 Speaker 1: So that's strike against it for me. Well, let's do 515 00:29:55,960 --> 00:29:58,719 Speaker 1: a real brief overview of some of the main types 516 00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:02,160 Speaker 1: of antennas you might encounter absolutely transmit on. So we've 517 00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:07,000 Speaker 1: we've mentioned by names several times the yaggi or yaggy antenna. Um, 518 00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:09,240 Speaker 1: So this is a directional antenna. There are a couple 519 00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:13,160 Speaker 1: of major kinds of directional antennas, but a directional antenna, 520 00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:18,200 Speaker 1: as we've said, it is designed to isolate the directionality 521 00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:20,920 Speaker 1: of the signals. So if you point it at a 522 00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:23,720 Speaker 1: right angle to the signal, you shouldn't be getting much 523 00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:26,720 Speaker 1: of anything. If you pointed in the opposite direction, most 524 00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:29,960 Speaker 1: of them should say you know nothing or not much. 525 00:30:30,040 --> 00:30:32,640 Speaker 1: But if you finally find the direction of the signal, 526 00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:36,240 Speaker 1: the strength of the signal that comes through the antenna 527 00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:39,719 Speaker 1: to your receiver should spike yes. And so a yaggy 528 00:30:39,760 --> 00:30:43,800 Speaker 1: antenna is made of a series of metal elements arranged 529 00:30:43,880 --> 00:30:46,160 Speaker 1: in parallel. So if you're trying to picture this, think 530 00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:48,840 Speaker 1: of one long pole could be like a broom handle 531 00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:52,600 Speaker 1: or PBC pipe or whatever, and then there are metal 532 00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:56,200 Speaker 1: rods or wires of varying lengths, and the lengths are 533 00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:59,560 Speaker 1: very specific and very important. Yes, and they are determined 534 00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:02,560 Speaker 1: by the frequency of the signal that you're looking for. 535 00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:07,360 Speaker 1: The relationship of the links of the various elements are 536 00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:11,920 Speaker 1: very important depending upon what the what their job is. Yeah. Uh, 537 00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:14,920 Speaker 1: So there is the most important elements. The main one 538 00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:19,080 Speaker 1: is the driven element, and this is the electrically active part. Uh. 539 00:31:19,120 --> 00:31:21,400 Speaker 1: This is the one that connects to the wires that 540 00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:24,840 Speaker 1: go down to your receiver handheld radio receiver. This is 541 00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:28,200 Speaker 1: this is what is resonating with that frequency. But then 542 00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:30,560 Speaker 1: there are these other elements that are known as the 543 00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:34,480 Speaker 1: parasitic elements, and they're not connected to the receiver, but 544 00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:38,440 Speaker 1: they're there to manipulate the types of waves that the 545 00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:42,479 Speaker 1: driven element receives. This is this is what gives these 546 00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:46,480 Speaker 1: directional antenna their directionality. Yeah. So the the there's a 547 00:31:46,680 --> 00:31:50,440 Speaker 1: reflector element that goes behind the driven element. So if 548 00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:54,440 Speaker 1: you're pointing at the signal source, the reflector elements should 549 00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:57,480 Speaker 1: be closer to you and behind the driven one. Uh. 550 00:31:57,520 --> 00:32:00,200 Speaker 1: And it reflects the signal back and focuses is the 551 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:03,080 Speaker 1: reception field to the direction that the antenna is pointing. 552 00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:07,120 Speaker 1: And then there may be multiple director elements, which are 553 00:32:07,120 --> 00:32:11,840 Speaker 1: more elements in parallel ahead of the active element to 554 00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:15,520 Speaker 1: help manipulate the shape of the wave forms and enforced directionality. 555 00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:18,720 Speaker 1: So if you're looking at these different elements, um, first 556 00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:20,680 Speaker 1: of all, if you're trying to envision this in your head, 557 00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:24,560 Speaker 1: imagine that broomstick, all right, the broomstick you are you 558 00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:29,480 Speaker 1: are holding out from yourself. These elements are perpendicular to 559 00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:33,240 Speaker 1: the broomstack stick, but parallel with each other. Right, So 560 00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:37,360 Speaker 1: at at the closest endto you, you you have this 561 00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:41,760 Speaker 1: reflector element. It's going to be the largest of those elements. 562 00:32:42,240 --> 00:32:45,040 Speaker 1: Then you have the just slightly not just slightly and 563 00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:47,520 Speaker 1: not by a whole lot, and it sort of is 564 00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:51,440 Speaker 1: acting kind of like the dish in a satellite dish antenna, 565 00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:55,600 Speaker 1: sort of in that same style. So it's it's slightly 566 00:32:55,680 --> 00:32:57,920 Speaker 1: larger than the driven element. That's the one that you 567 00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:00,240 Speaker 1: were you know, is actually hooked up to the sir 568 00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:04,120 Speaker 1: so that it's it's pulling in the signal. And then 569 00:33:04,280 --> 00:33:07,800 Speaker 1: at the far end you have the director elements. These 570 00:33:07,800 --> 00:33:10,400 Speaker 1: are the shortest of the elements, and again it's not 571 00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:14,760 Speaker 1: dramatically shorter, it's just a little shorter. All of the 572 00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:19,680 Speaker 1: size sizes of these depend upon the frequency you're searching for. 573 00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:22,360 Speaker 1: I mean, if you want to build a YAGGI for 574 00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:25,400 Speaker 1: a very specific purpose, you would look at the frequency 575 00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:30,360 Speaker 1: you're looking for, and there's a mathematical formula you use 576 00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:35,200 Speaker 1: that gives you the ideal uh driven element size, reflector 577 00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:39,080 Speaker 1: element size, and director element sizes, and you just it's 578 00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:42,120 Speaker 1: it's essentially you take a number and you also also 579 00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:45,080 Speaker 1: their distance from each other. That is also. Yeah, the 580 00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:48,640 Speaker 1: spacing is also important. The spacing between these elements is 581 00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:51,840 Speaker 1: very important. You can't just put them anywhere along that broomstick. 582 00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:54,400 Speaker 1: You need to have them spaced out properly. So both 583 00:33:54,400 --> 00:33:56,360 Speaker 1: of those things are very important in order for you 584 00:33:56,400 --> 00:33:59,920 Speaker 1: to get an antenna that is going to resonate proper 585 00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:03,200 Speaker 1: with the frequency you want and therefore help you narrow 586 00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:07,080 Speaker 1: down its direction. Yeah. Uh So then there's another very 587 00:34:07,120 --> 00:34:11,520 Speaker 1: popular form of directional antenna that is accomplishes the same 588 00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:13,799 Speaker 1: goal but with a different type of construction, and that's 589 00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:17,560 Speaker 1: the quad antenna. Yeah. They they're also typically used to 590 00:34:17,600 --> 00:34:20,720 Speaker 1: detect frequencies and the high frequency are very high frequency ranges. 591 00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:24,680 Speaker 1: Uh So they consist of the driven element just and 592 00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:29,840 Speaker 1: the the direction and reflective element or a directive elements, 593 00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:33,440 Speaker 1: I should say, uh, just like the yaggi is, but 594 00:34:33,680 --> 00:34:37,760 Speaker 1: they're arranged in a slightly different way. They use loops 595 00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:40,799 Speaker 1: of wire. Uh, these loops that are not necessarily in 596 00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:43,600 Speaker 1: a circle, they just need to be closed off. So 597 00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:48,320 Speaker 1: the the example I saw was a cubicle two element 598 00:34:48,400 --> 00:34:51,000 Speaker 1: quad antenna, and actually it's technically a three element, but 599 00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:54,000 Speaker 1: because you've got the driven, you've got the reflector, and uh, 600 00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:58,719 Speaker 1: you know, the direction one, the directive element. I liked 601 00:34:58,719 --> 00:35:00,800 Speaker 1: it because it kind of looks like a tie fighter. 602 00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:03,839 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they look like tie fighter wings loops. Yeah, 603 00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:07,120 Speaker 1: now that's just the cubicle version. There are other variants 604 00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:13,840 Speaker 1: of the quada antenna. Uh. These are these are slightly 605 00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:17,160 Speaker 1: different look, I mean a very different look from the yogis. Uh. 606 00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:21,399 Speaker 1: They have a very sensitive directionality to them, and they 607 00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:24,880 Speaker 1: also tend to have a slightly higher gain than yogis 608 00:35:24,920 --> 00:35:28,120 Speaker 1: by about two decibels decibel as a sliding scale. By 609 00:35:28,120 --> 00:35:31,600 Speaker 1: the way, it's logarithmic scale, not so two decibels on 610 00:35:31,640 --> 00:35:34,399 Speaker 1: its own means nothing. You need to have another point 611 00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:36,480 Speaker 1: of reference for you to understand what two deciples. But 612 00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:38,440 Speaker 1: if you've got a weak signal and you need to 613 00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:42,000 Speaker 1: amplify it that that could be important. Yeah. So, so 614 00:35:42,200 --> 00:35:46,160 Speaker 1: quad antennas are a popular way of trying to track 615 00:35:46,239 --> 00:35:49,120 Speaker 1: down um A signal, especially if you need a little 616 00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:52,440 Speaker 1: bit more sensitivity than you would with a yogi. Uh So, 617 00:35:52,600 --> 00:35:56,080 Speaker 1: both of these are popular. They also come in different sizes. 618 00:35:56,120 --> 00:35:58,919 Speaker 1: I mean, obviously it depends upon what frequencies you're looking for. 619 00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:01,839 Speaker 1: Uh The quad antenna is interesting because the length of 620 00:36:01,880 --> 00:36:05,920 Speaker 1: the loop is dependent upon the frequency you're you're searching for. 621 00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:09,840 Speaker 1: So the squares in the tie Fighter, like the wing 622 00:36:10,040 --> 00:36:13,640 Speaker 1: size of the Thaie Fighter, are dependent upon that frequency. 623 00:36:13,880 --> 00:36:17,040 Speaker 1: And the reflector is actually gonna be slightly larger than 624 00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:20,400 Speaker 1: the other ones. Uh so. Uh. I was watching a 625 00:36:20,480 --> 00:36:22,359 Speaker 1: video on how to make this, and that's when I said, 626 00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:25,840 Speaker 1: I kind of want to make one of these. Um 627 00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:28,799 Speaker 1: And you know, the mobile ones are slightly smaller than 628 00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:31,279 Speaker 1: the ones you might mount at your house if you 629 00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:33,239 Speaker 1: happen to live out in the country and you can 630 00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:37,719 Speaker 1: have a forty meter tall antenna in your backyard. Um 631 00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:41,359 Speaker 1: but they are and it definitely doesn't look like something 632 00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:43,799 Speaker 1: that's easy to carry around. I mean, they're not they're 633 00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:47,800 Speaker 1: not small. A lot of people who are serious about 634 00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:53,080 Speaker 1: this hobby. They have, uh, they have mounts. Yeah, so 635 00:36:53,120 --> 00:36:56,160 Speaker 1: you'll see vans with these things attached or jeeps that 636 00:36:56,239 --> 00:36:59,040 Speaker 1: kind of thing, with these things attached to the vehicles 637 00:36:59,080 --> 00:37:02,120 Speaker 1: themselves mounted on them and they're not meant to be 638 00:37:02,160 --> 00:37:06,560 Speaker 1: taken off. So uh, that's another popular one. Another one 639 00:37:06,760 --> 00:37:09,560 Speaker 1: is the Doppler direction finder. Now this is going to 640 00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:13,200 Speaker 1: be somewhat different than the directional antenna's. It's still ultimately 641 00:37:13,320 --> 00:37:19,080 Speaker 1: establishes directionality, but it makes use of the eponymous Doppler effect, 642 00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:23,040 Speaker 1: named after a Christian Doppler who was known for running 643 00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:29,000 Speaker 1: down the hallways going E got Dylan laughing on that one. 644 00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:33,560 Speaker 1: It's just so absurd that Dylan Stern laughing. It's rare 645 00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:35,560 Speaker 1: that I get our producer to laugh at something, but 646 00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:38,840 Speaker 1: that was one of them. Uh No. So Doppler was 647 00:37:38,880 --> 00:37:43,680 Speaker 1: a nineteenth century uh physicist apparently in my world, slightly 648 00:37:43,719 --> 00:37:47,319 Speaker 1: absurd one, and he came up with the equations to 649 00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:53,279 Speaker 1: describe the apparent frequency shifts we perceive that happened from 650 00:37:53,280 --> 00:37:55,680 Speaker 1: the relative motion of a cinder of a of a 651 00:37:55,719 --> 00:37:58,400 Speaker 1: signal and the receiver of a signal or a wave. 652 00:37:59,239 --> 00:38:01,600 Speaker 1: Now you've heard me talk about this before, you probably 653 00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:05,520 Speaker 1: experienced it. The easiest way to to give an example 654 00:38:05,800 --> 00:38:08,560 Speaker 1: is with sound waves. So if you've ever noticed a 655 00:38:08,719 --> 00:38:12,920 Speaker 1: siren on an approaching emergency vehicle being much higher pitched 656 00:38:13,280 --> 00:38:15,640 Speaker 1: than it is when it passes you, so it's coming 657 00:38:15,640 --> 00:38:17,880 Speaker 1: at you, it's a higher pitch noise, it passes you, 658 00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:20,160 Speaker 1: it's a lower pitch noise. Or if you happen to 659 00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:22,040 Speaker 1: be next to it and the two of you are 660 00:38:22,080 --> 00:38:25,440 Speaker 1: either motionless or you're moving at the same speed in 661 00:38:25,480 --> 00:38:29,160 Speaker 1: the same direction, it may sound like a pitch that's 662 00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:32,600 Speaker 1: somewhere in between. That's because of the Doppler shift. When 663 00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:36,880 Speaker 1: the vehicles moving towards you, it is effectively compressing those 664 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:40,960 Speaker 1: sound waves, So it's increasing the frequency, which we perceive 665 00:38:41,120 --> 00:38:44,200 Speaker 1: as an increase in making the pitch go up. When 666 00:38:44,200 --> 00:38:47,280 Speaker 1: it's moving away from you, it's elongating those sound waves, 667 00:38:47,719 --> 00:38:50,200 Speaker 1: and so our perception of that is that it's a 668 00:38:50,200 --> 00:38:53,520 Speaker 1: lower frequency and the pitch goes down. Same sort of 669 00:38:53,560 --> 00:38:56,399 Speaker 1: thing is true with electromagnetic radiation. Actually it's also true 670 00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:59,440 Speaker 1: with light I mean, which technically is part of electromagnetic radiation, 671 00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:01,480 Speaker 1: but it's not rad you waves. The same thing is 672 00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:05,400 Speaker 1: true for all of these things exactly. Yeah, that's how 673 00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:08,920 Speaker 1: we measure how fast we're moving away from or toward 674 00:39:09,440 --> 00:39:15,080 Speaker 1: other galaxies for example. Uh So, using a very special 675 00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:19,719 Speaker 1: type of antenna, you can take advantage of this this 676 00:39:20,200 --> 00:39:24,240 Speaker 1: property of physics. So Toppler direction finders typically have several 677 00:39:24,360 --> 00:39:27,920 Speaker 1: rotating elements and it's usually between three and eight vertically 678 00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:33,239 Speaker 1: oriented antenna. The antenna pick up the signals that then 679 00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:37,640 Speaker 1: are sent to a processor that determines where is the 680 00:39:38,200 --> 00:39:40,880 Speaker 1: signal really coming from? The incoming signal, where is that 681 00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:45,400 Speaker 1: coming from? And typically there's like a circular display um 682 00:39:45,520 --> 00:39:48,720 Speaker 1: that's just a circle of LED lights is the simplest version, 683 00:39:49,160 --> 00:39:53,600 Speaker 1: and whatever direction the signal appears to be coming from 684 00:39:53,640 --> 00:39:57,560 Speaker 1: with respect to the front of your vehicle, a little 685 00:39:57,600 --> 00:40:01,360 Speaker 1: pop up. So it's not telling you that, oh, you 686 00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:04,319 Speaker 1: need to go northeast. It will tell you, oh, the 687 00:40:04,440 --> 00:40:07,200 Speaker 1: signals coming this many degrees to your right, or this 688 00:40:07,280 --> 00:40:09,480 Speaker 1: many degrees to your left, or it's actually coming from 689 00:40:09,480 --> 00:40:12,200 Speaker 1: behind you. That kind of thing. So if you were 690 00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:16,680 Speaker 1: driving due west and the signal at the three o'clock 691 00:40:16,719 --> 00:40:18,880 Speaker 1: position or the light at the three o'clock position on 692 00:40:18,880 --> 00:40:21,640 Speaker 1: your little circular display lights up, that would tell you 693 00:40:21,680 --> 00:40:24,400 Speaker 1: that the signals actually coming from the north, because to 694 00:40:24,520 --> 00:40:27,400 Speaker 1: your right would be true north if you're going due west. 695 00:40:28,040 --> 00:40:31,240 Speaker 1: So you look at this signal the circle of lights, 696 00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:34,120 Speaker 1: and whichever one is lit up, that's telling you, all right, well, 697 00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:37,520 Speaker 1: we need to start changing our bearing toward that direction 698 00:40:37,600 --> 00:40:39,880 Speaker 1: if we want to head in the direction of the 699 00:40:39,920 --> 00:40:44,880 Speaker 1: transmission itself. Now, another type of direction finder that you 700 00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:48,800 Speaker 1: could use would be something that's known as time difference 701 00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:52,319 Speaker 1: of arrival antennas. And this is another interesting thing. So 702 00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:57,200 Speaker 1: it it has multiple receiving elements arranged in a pattern 703 00:40:57,360 --> 00:41:01,239 Speaker 1: that passed the signal along to an electronic computational core 704 00:41:01,800 --> 00:41:06,360 Speaker 1: that compares the time delay between when the different elements 705 00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:10,320 Speaker 1: received the same signal pattern. Now this is crazy because 706 00:41:10,360 --> 00:41:13,640 Speaker 1: remember these signals travel at the speed of light, so 707 00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:18,200 Speaker 1: the differences are not detectable by humans, right, Like, there's 708 00:41:18,239 --> 00:41:20,439 Speaker 1: no way that we humans would be able to tell 709 00:41:20,440 --> 00:41:24,040 Speaker 1: the difference. And there's obviously easier if you have you know, 710 00:41:24,560 --> 00:41:27,359 Speaker 1: something where they are multiple elements that are very far 711 00:41:27,360 --> 00:41:32,399 Speaker 1: away from each other, like installations. Um, but yeah, so 712 00:41:32,719 --> 00:41:35,880 Speaker 1: you can use time difference of arrival. Since we know 713 00:41:36,120 --> 00:41:39,080 Speaker 1: the speed of radio transmission is constant, we know exactly 714 00:41:39,080 --> 00:41:41,640 Speaker 1: what the speed is and we know the difference between 715 00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:44,960 Speaker 1: the different elements, we can use the time delay between 716 00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:47,719 Speaker 1: when they receive the signal to calculate the direction the 717 00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:51,239 Speaker 1: signals coming from. All right, So we've talked a lot 718 00:41:51,239 --> 00:41:58,000 Speaker 1: about antennas, and we've we've mentioned receivers quite a few times. Now. 719 00:41:58,200 --> 00:42:00,560 Speaker 1: Some people listening maybe thinking that what you're doing is 720 00:42:00,640 --> 00:42:03,560 Speaker 1: you've got a pair of cans on your ears and 721 00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:06,560 Speaker 1: you're listening really carefully for the beat beat beats. But 722 00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:09,280 Speaker 1: as it turns out, most of the time we're actually 723 00:42:09,320 --> 00:42:12,319 Speaker 1: talking about a piece of equipment that indicates when it's 724 00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:14,799 Speaker 1: receiving a signal and giving you an idea of how 725 00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:17,439 Speaker 1: strong that signal is. Let's talk about that for a second. Well, 726 00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:19,840 Speaker 1: so it is going to be a receiver radio receiving 727 00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:22,839 Speaker 1: radio receiver you might be familiar with, but the most 728 00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:26,040 Speaker 1: useful ones, obviously are going to be ones that are 729 00:42:26,080 --> 00:42:29,560 Speaker 1: equipped with what's known as an S meter. So you've 730 00:42:29,600 --> 00:42:32,239 Speaker 1: got your antenna and you've got a wire running from 731 00:42:32,239 --> 00:42:35,400 Speaker 1: your antenna to the receiver or wires running from the 732 00:42:35,440 --> 00:42:39,919 Speaker 1: antenna to the receiver, UH, and the receiver should be 733 00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:43,600 Speaker 1: able to translate the signal into something you can make 734 00:42:43,640 --> 00:42:46,560 Speaker 1: sense of. That might be sounds, or that might be 735 00:42:46,600 --> 00:42:49,680 Speaker 1: a number, and in the case of an s meter, 736 00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:51,759 Speaker 1: it would be a number. It's a gauge that gives 737 00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:55,440 Speaker 1: you a direct reading in a numerical value of the 738 00:42:55,520 --> 00:42:58,799 Speaker 1: strength of the signal. So you're not just relying on 739 00:42:58,920 --> 00:43:02,160 Speaker 1: you know, subjective and sans from listening or some other method. 740 00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:05,839 Speaker 1: So you just find the direction where the number on 741 00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:08,800 Speaker 1: the estimeter is the highest. This makes it a lot easier, 742 00:43:09,040 --> 00:43:13,120 Speaker 1: and the signal strength is going to increase the closer 743 00:43:13,200 --> 00:43:16,040 Speaker 1: you get to the transmitter. There's actually a very specific 744 00:43:16,080 --> 00:43:18,120 Speaker 1: amount where you can sit there and say, like, all right, 745 00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:24,120 Speaker 1: I look to see when the the strength of the 746 00:43:24,160 --> 00:43:27,239 Speaker 1: signal has doubled. That gives me an idea of how 747 00:43:27,360 --> 00:43:31,040 Speaker 1: much closer I am to the transmitter. But using you know, 748 00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:34,719 Speaker 1: describing that requires lots of calculations and variables that I 749 00:43:34,760 --> 00:43:37,279 Speaker 1: don't really have the time to go into right now. 750 00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:40,160 Speaker 1: But just general rule of thumb, you know, you're you 751 00:43:40,239 --> 00:43:42,200 Speaker 1: look at that signal strength, and that gives you an 752 00:43:42,239 --> 00:43:45,799 Speaker 1: idea of how much closer you are to the transmitter 753 00:43:45,880 --> 00:43:48,239 Speaker 1: without actually giving you any sort of units, Like it 754 00:43:48,280 --> 00:43:52,399 Speaker 1: doesn't tell you, oh, it's a mile away or it's 755 00:43:52,600 --> 00:43:55,080 Speaker 1: a thousand yards away or anything like that. It just 756 00:43:55,120 --> 00:43:58,080 Speaker 1: tells you, oh, you have had the distance between you 757 00:43:58,239 --> 00:44:01,440 Speaker 1: and the transmitter. Whether that distance was ten miles or 758 00:44:01,520 --> 00:44:05,960 Speaker 1: one mile, who's to say, It all depends upon the 759 00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:09,920 Speaker 1: strength of the transmitter. So yeah, uh, so you mentioned 760 00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:14,080 Speaker 1: when you get close. Another important factor is going to 761 00:44:14,120 --> 00:44:17,439 Speaker 1: be that most of your equipment is going to be 762 00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:21,480 Speaker 1: attuned to weak signals. You want to be able to 763 00:44:21,520 --> 00:44:24,560 Speaker 1: detect a signal coming from a long distance. But when 764 00:44:24,560 --> 00:44:27,480 Speaker 1: you get close to something that is uh you know, 765 00:44:27,600 --> 00:44:29,920 Speaker 1: you you is no longer a weak signal, it can 766 00:44:29,960 --> 00:44:33,080 Speaker 1: overpower your equipment, right, so you might suddenly you've got 767 00:44:33,080 --> 00:44:35,960 Speaker 1: your receiver and you've got your directional antenna and you 768 00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:38,600 Speaker 1: can point it around in a circle, and no matter 769 00:44:38,640 --> 00:44:41,919 Speaker 1: what direction you pointed in, your smeter is maxed out 770 00:44:42,320 --> 00:44:45,279 Speaker 1: because you're just you're just too close. It's it's it's like, 771 00:44:45,480 --> 00:44:49,040 Speaker 1: you know, the water is completely around you, so detecting 772 00:44:49,080 --> 00:44:52,440 Speaker 1: where the water is coming from is not easy to do, right, 773 00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:54,799 Speaker 1: So in this case, another piece of equipment that some 774 00:44:54,840 --> 00:44:56,839 Speaker 1: people might have that would make a big difference would 775 00:44:56,840 --> 00:45:01,000 Speaker 1: be known as an attenuator. And so yeah, in in 776 00:45:01,040 --> 00:45:03,960 Speaker 1: this case and attenuators an electronic element that can help 777 00:45:03,960 --> 00:45:06,480 Speaker 1: you knock down the power of the signals, sort of 778 00:45:06,480 --> 00:45:10,239 Speaker 1: the opposite of an amplifier. Uh, and so that your 779 00:45:10,239 --> 00:45:13,319 Speaker 1: equipment can tell which direction the signals strongest and not 780 00:45:13,440 --> 00:45:16,120 Speaker 1: just be maxing out at the top of the esimeter. Right. 781 00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:19,040 Speaker 1: This is also when the harmonics can come into play, 782 00:45:19,080 --> 00:45:21,719 Speaker 1: because if you can switch to the third harmonic or 783 00:45:21,760 --> 00:45:26,720 Speaker 1: the fifth harmonic, then you're using weaker signals and it 784 00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:30,239 Speaker 1: is less likely to overwhelm your equipment. Now we've been 785 00:45:30,239 --> 00:45:34,200 Speaker 1: talking about, you know, antenna types and stuff like that. 786 00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:36,560 Speaker 1: If if you are a HAM hobbyist and you want 787 00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:38,640 Speaker 1: to build something, or you want to spend some money 788 00:45:38,640 --> 00:45:41,759 Speaker 1: in order something on the internet, you can have these uh, 789 00:45:41,840 --> 00:45:44,759 Speaker 1: these interesting setups that will give you a big advantage. 790 00:45:45,320 --> 00:45:48,279 Speaker 1: But people, some of these hams will talk about how 791 00:45:48,360 --> 00:45:50,640 Speaker 1: you don't actually have to have something like that to 792 00:45:50,680 --> 00:45:54,759 Speaker 1: do ham hunting, ham hunting, transmitter hunting. You are the HAM. 793 00:45:54,920 --> 00:45:58,520 Speaker 1: I've I've hunted ham before ham The most dangerous game 794 00:45:58,640 --> 00:46:01,640 Speaker 1: it was there was, Uh, there was this time where 795 00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:03,440 Speaker 1: I spent with a bunch of my school friends on 796 00:46:03,440 --> 00:46:06,040 Speaker 1: an island hunted HAM. I don't like to talk about 797 00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:10,640 Speaker 1: it though didn't turn out well to serve Ham. But 798 00:46:11,480 --> 00:46:15,240 Speaker 1: one example of an interesting hack for crude tea hunting. 799 00:46:15,320 --> 00:46:17,640 Speaker 1: If you don't have a directional antenna, but you've just 800 00:46:17,680 --> 00:46:21,520 Speaker 1: got a standard receiver handy talkie. You know, uh, is 801 00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:24,840 Speaker 1: this thing that I read about called body blocking or 802 00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:29,000 Speaker 1: body fading, which doesn't involve tackling somebody, you know, But 803 00:46:29,040 --> 00:46:32,040 Speaker 1: this is a really interesting idea. So let's say you've 804 00:46:32,040 --> 00:46:34,360 Speaker 1: just got a little handy talkie. The antenna on this 805 00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:38,400 Speaker 1: thing is omnidirectional, right, like a standard radio antenna. It directs, 806 00:46:38,520 --> 00:46:41,680 Speaker 1: it listens to all directions equally, right, So if you're 807 00:46:41,680 --> 00:46:44,680 Speaker 1: picking up a signal, you can't tell where it's coming from, 808 00:46:44,960 --> 00:46:47,120 Speaker 1: just you just know that you are within range of 809 00:46:47,160 --> 00:46:50,160 Speaker 1: that signal. But here's what you can do. You take 810 00:46:50,200 --> 00:46:54,680 Speaker 1: your regular omnidirectional antenna and press it tied up against 811 00:46:54,760 --> 00:46:58,720 Speaker 1: your chest, hug it to your body. Now stand in place, 812 00:46:58,800 --> 00:47:02,839 Speaker 1: and rotate your body slowly. You should find, actually that 813 00:47:02,920 --> 00:47:07,080 Speaker 1: your reception will be fine in most directions, but that 814 00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:11,080 Speaker 1: it will deteriorate when your back is facing one direction. 815 00:47:11,719 --> 00:47:15,319 Speaker 1: And that's because you're suddenly that's the direction where you're 816 00:47:15,320 --> 00:47:20,200 Speaker 1: putting your body directly between the transmitter and your receiver. 817 00:47:20,400 --> 00:47:23,280 Speaker 1: So it's called body blocking because you are physically blocking 818 00:47:23,320 --> 00:47:27,000 Speaker 1: the signal from getting to the radio effectively. Yeah, sort 819 00:47:27,040 --> 00:47:29,839 Speaker 1: of the opposite of a directional antenna here, because you 820 00:47:29,960 --> 00:47:33,799 Speaker 1: instead of saying go to where the signal is strongest, 821 00:47:34,320 --> 00:47:37,080 Speaker 1: you find the direction where you are most able to 822 00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:40,920 Speaker 1: block the antenna from receiving the signal, and then you 823 00:47:40,960 --> 00:47:44,759 Speaker 1: know that your butt is facing the transmitter, as is 824 00:47:44,800 --> 00:47:48,200 Speaker 1: always the case with me. Yeah, I like this idea. 825 00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:50,840 Speaker 1: I like the idea of actually holding a competition that 826 00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:55,399 Speaker 1: only allows for that sort of transmitter hunting. I think 827 00:47:55,400 --> 00:47:58,160 Speaker 1: it could be really interesting. It would also be really 828 00:47:58,200 --> 00:48:01,160 Speaker 1: interesting to see it from afar, like being able to 829 00:48:01,200 --> 00:48:03,040 Speaker 1: see at least three or four Like you're just seeing 830 00:48:03,080 --> 00:48:07,400 Speaker 1: these people turn around very slowly, stop and then immediately 831 00:48:07,440 --> 00:48:09,800 Speaker 1: do a one E D and start running in that direction, 832 00:48:10,600 --> 00:48:16,880 Speaker 1: all passionately embracing their little handy talkies. Yeah. Yeah, and again, 833 00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:19,239 Speaker 1: like before you brought this topic up to me, I 834 00:48:19,239 --> 00:48:22,359 Speaker 1: had never I'm not a ham radio operator. I've never 835 00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:25,279 Speaker 1: gotten into amateur radio. I think it's fascinating, but i've 836 00:48:25,320 --> 00:48:27,759 Speaker 1: never it's just not that's never been a world that 837 00:48:27,800 --> 00:48:30,480 Speaker 1: I've explored, so I didn't even know that this was 838 00:48:30,520 --> 00:48:33,480 Speaker 1: a thing when you brought this up and learning about it, 839 00:48:33,520 --> 00:48:35,839 Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, this is it does appeal to 840 00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:38,880 Speaker 1: me because just as geo cashing and letter boxing and 841 00:48:38,920 --> 00:48:42,120 Speaker 1: those other forms of of kind of using technology to 842 00:48:42,160 --> 00:48:45,680 Speaker 1: help hunt down something. It's kind of cool because that, 843 00:48:46,440 --> 00:48:50,600 Speaker 1: you know, it does had that relationship between technology and skill, 844 00:48:51,280 --> 00:48:54,520 Speaker 1: and that that desire for us to uncover secrets. I mean, 845 00:48:54,520 --> 00:48:56,879 Speaker 1: I think that's something that's kind of innate in humans, right, 846 00:48:57,280 --> 00:49:00,720 Speaker 1: This desire to to the scavenger hunt is very powerful 847 00:49:00,719 --> 00:49:03,279 Speaker 1: thing because it's just it's fun to go through that 848 00:49:03,360 --> 00:49:06,680 Speaker 1: experience and to uncover mysteries and stuff. And they're all 849 00:49:06,719 --> 00:49:11,360 Speaker 1: sorts of different variations on these uh these these competitions, 850 00:49:11,360 --> 00:49:14,160 Speaker 1: Like one of them I would read about everyone starts 851 00:49:14,160 --> 00:49:18,480 Speaker 1: in the same location. Everybody starts there, and everyone gets 852 00:49:18,480 --> 00:49:20,880 Speaker 1: their initial bearing and then it's up to them to 853 00:49:20,880 --> 00:49:25,440 Speaker 1: figure out how to get to Usually a sequence of transmitters, 854 00:49:25,480 --> 00:49:28,799 Speaker 1: with each transmitter sending out a slightly different variation of 855 00:49:28,800 --> 00:49:32,480 Speaker 1: the signal, and typically they would do this over the 856 00:49:32,480 --> 00:49:36,000 Speaker 1: course of several minutes, So like on minute one transmitter 857 00:49:36,080 --> 00:49:39,440 Speaker 1: one is transmitting its signal, then it shuts off, and 858 00:49:39,440 --> 00:49:43,160 Speaker 1: then transmitter two emits its signal and then it shuts off, 859 00:49:43,239 --> 00:49:45,600 Speaker 1: which means that if there's like five transmitters that you 860 00:49:45,640 --> 00:49:47,759 Speaker 1: have to find by the end of the day and 861 00:49:47,840 --> 00:49:51,279 Speaker 1: you have just missed, like you hop out the car. Yeah, 862 00:49:51,360 --> 00:49:53,279 Speaker 1: if you hop out of the car a minute too late, 863 00:49:53,360 --> 00:49:55,600 Speaker 1: then you have to wait another five to ten minutes 864 00:49:55,640 --> 00:50:00,319 Speaker 1: before your transmitter comes back online. So you could could 865 00:50:00,880 --> 00:50:05,479 Speaker 1: It's it's you know, time management, it's it's orienteering, it's 866 00:50:05,560 --> 00:50:07,279 Speaker 1: all this sort of stuff. And I'm like, wow, what 867 00:50:07,360 --> 00:50:10,440 Speaker 1: a neat idea, And I would love to to participate 868 00:50:10,480 --> 00:50:12,120 Speaker 1: in one of these, But I think we should do 869 00:50:12,160 --> 00:50:14,600 Speaker 1: it as like a small group of us and shoot 870 00:50:14,640 --> 00:50:17,080 Speaker 1: it on video and do it kind of like how 871 00:50:17,239 --> 00:50:19,640 Speaker 1: some of our car stuff buddies did an interesting project 872 00:50:19,719 --> 00:50:22,319 Speaker 1: not too long ago. Oh wow, yeah, be kind of neat. 873 00:50:23,520 --> 00:50:25,680 Speaker 1: Of course they probably first tea hunt. It will mostly 874 00:50:25,760 --> 00:50:27,839 Speaker 1: end up with all of us yelling at each other, 875 00:50:27,880 --> 00:50:31,120 Speaker 1: but that could be entertaining to watch. Joe, thank you 876 00:50:31,280 --> 00:50:33,640 Speaker 1: so much for coming on the show and bringing this 877 00:50:33,719 --> 00:50:37,560 Speaker 1: topic up. It was a lot of fun to look into. Um, 878 00:50:37,600 --> 00:50:39,880 Speaker 1: why don't you let people know where they can find 879 00:50:40,120 --> 00:50:43,240 Speaker 1: your work here at how stuff Works. Well, you can 880 00:50:43,280 --> 00:50:46,280 Speaker 1: come and listen to the podcast that I do, Stuff 881 00:50:46,320 --> 00:50:48,600 Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind, with my co host Robert Lamb 882 00:50:48,600 --> 00:50:52,600 Speaker 1: and Christian Seger. We are a science and weirdness podcast 883 00:50:52,680 --> 00:50:55,480 Speaker 1: here in the How Stuff Works family, trying to pull 884 00:50:55,520 --> 00:50:58,040 Speaker 1: back the curtain on the oddust corners of the universe. 885 00:50:58,160 --> 00:51:00,560 Speaker 1: And so yeah, come check us out Stuff to Blow 886 00:51:00,600 --> 00:51:02,560 Speaker 1: your Mind. We've got a website, stuff to Blow your 887 00:51:02,600 --> 00:51:05,239 Speaker 1: Mind dot com. And of course I also write for 888 00:51:05,440 --> 00:51:07,440 Speaker 1: video here at how Stuff Works. If you check out 889 00:51:07,440 --> 00:51:11,000 Speaker 1: our channels like brain stuff, you'll see some of my 890 00:51:11,120 --> 00:51:14,839 Speaker 1: intolerable work there. And Jonathan, I hope to come back 891 00:51:14,880 --> 00:51:17,719 Speaker 1: on the show sometime again soon. Absolutely, it's always fun 892 00:51:17,719 --> 00:51:20,680 Speaker 1: to have someone else in here. Uh. It breaks up 893 00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:25,000 Speaker 1: the narrative versions of the tech Stuff podcast, which is 894 00:51:25,080 --> 00:51:28,440 Speaker 1: nice for me and I'm sure my listeners agree. Guys, 895 00:51:28,440 --> 00:51:31,320 Speaker 1: if you have any suggestions, questions, anything like that, you 896 00:51:31,360 --> 00:51:33,439 Speaker 1: want to send me a message, you can do so 897 00:51:33,560 --> 00:51:36,560 Speaker 1: via email. The address to send it to is tech 898 00:51:36,680 --> 00:51:39,000 Speaker 1: stuff at how stuff works dot com, or you can 899 00:51:39,080 --> 00:51:42,160 Speaker 1: drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter. The handle 900 00:51:42,200 --> 00:51:44,280 Speaker 1: I use at both of those locations for this show 901 00:51:44,480 --> 00:51:47,800 Speaker 1: is text stuff. H s W and I'll talk to 902 00:51:47,880 --> 00:51:56,280 Speaker 1: you again really soon For more on this and thousands 903 00:51:56,280 --> 00:52:00,480 Speaker 1: of other topics. Is it, how stuff works? Dot Com 904 00:52:02,840 --> 00:52:04,160 Speaker 1: Want