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
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.
A friend of mine lived next to the transmitter for an AM station. His sink picked up the broadcast.
Recently, I had to go to my car to retrieve something and I could very faintly hear a radio ad inside the car. I sat in the driver’s seat and closed the door, and yep, it was definitely the radio even though nothing was on inside my car. No lights on the dashboard, keys weren’t even in the ignition.
Was that the same sort of thing happening with OP’s faucet?
Sounds like your sink is moonlighting as a [Crystal Radio!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_radio)
Fun Fact: The electricity used to power a basic radio is only there to boost the volume!
You dont need electricity to turn radio waves into audible sound!
I remember one time when I was a teenager, I was taking a bath and I had an experience I think must have been related to this. I had my head tilted back, the water level was exactly at the bottom of my earhole, and I can swear I was able to hear a very faint conversation. I couldn’t make out any words, and it was only audible when my ear was RIGHT at the water level. But I was able to move my head up and down and repeat the effect for a few minutes. I was home alone and there was no TV or radio on in the house at the time.
the air ducts of an old giant building i used to work in would transmit a spanish radio station
Lucille Ball claimed she received Japanese military transmissions on her fillings during WWII. Stranger things have happened, I guess.
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