– How did our kitchen sink faintly pick up AM radio?

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A conversation with a friend made me suddenly recall that when I was a kid in the early 80’s, we could occasionally hear a faint rendition of the major local AM station coming from the faucet of the kitchen sink. We lived just a mile or two from the broadcast antenna.

It was very faint and had a spooky sizzling quality, but it was unmistakable. Our wall-mounted telephone also picked it up, but more distinctly. I can understand the telephone noise reason, as there’s an amplifier and speaker. But a faucet? How?

In: Physics

18 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

As a small child, I remember my dad having a cb set up in the shop where he worked/we lived (close to downtown area). Around the corner from the shop/house there was a Pentacostal church my mom would attend on Sundays.
My dad was really into the CB scene and had a tower put up beside the shop.
On Sundays, if he was talking to his buddies, he would break through the church’s speaker system during service.
My mom has said she had never been so embarrassed after hearing him break through responding to his buddies with “… you damned sapsucker.”
Also, the elderly lady up the street also caught it all through her toaster.

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