What do you think the mystery RF sparks were in MrCarlson's lab?

[Beamin]

https://youtu.be/-_MsOjQEC3k

Very strange to see this. High voltage jumping from snowfall or RF?

[0culus]

I'm guessing either static buildup from snow, or some kind of high powered (maybe pulsed?) RF source that he was "lucky" to get painted by. Military exercise or the like. There's a video online of a tower engineer demonstrating how a powered down transmitter tower was still being energized by nearby sources at the antenna farm.

[Marco]

In the other thread I speculated it was Narrow Bipolar Pulses because it seemingly went through the capacitor without damaging it.

[SoundTech-LG]

Mr. Carlson must live in a "no earthquakes" region. Otherwise, his seated position seems quite vulnerable...

[Beamin]

In the other thread I speculated it was Narrow Bipolar Pulses because it seemingly went through the capacitor without damaging it.

Which thread?

I'm guessing either static buildup from snow, or some kind of high powered (maybe pulsed?) RF source that he was "lucky" to get painted by. Military exercise or the like. There's a video online of a tower engineer demonstrating how a powered down transmitter tower was still being energized by nearby sources at the antenna farm.

Painted by? Like over the horizon radar? Hes in BC canada so I dont know of any sources.

[SpecialK]

Painted by? Like over the horizon radar? Hes in BC canada so I dont know of any sources.

I thought he lived in Winnipeg Manitoba.

ETA.  Yep B.C.  Just checked his "black box" video and he mentions AirCare.

[Beamin]

Painted by? Like over the horizon radar? Hes in BC canada so I dont know of any sources.

I thought he lived in Winnipeg Manitoba.

ETA.  Yep B.C.  Just checked his "black box" video and he mentions AirCare.

AirCare; we don't have that here in the states we do have "TTokyo" SpecialK brand ketamine though. My 2nd favorite dissociative anesthetic besides N2O. Unless you are talking about that awful cereal, Hey lets take the raisins out of raisin bran and see who will buy it.

If he was getting hit by a man made RF wouldn't it pulse very fast and not intermittently?  What sources could it be? Maybe its the HAARP project that's targeting him, hes a targeted individual.

[Beamin]

In the other thread I speculated it was Narrow Bipolar Pulses because it seemingly went through the capacitor without damaging it.

Which thread?

I'm guessing either static buildup from snow, or some kind of high powered (maybe pulsed?) RF source that he was "lucky" to get painted by. Military exercise or the like. There's a video online of a tower engineer demonstrating how a powered down transmitter tower was still being energized by nearby sources at the antenna farm.

Painted by? Like over the horizon radar? Hes in BC canada so I dont know of any sources.

I see the other thread now sorry for the repost, its my stupid eye sight acting up.

[David Hess]

I have had it happen before with ungrounded antennas like 1/4 wave ground plane and center fed dipoles.  The "open" center conductor charges with respect to the ground or shield connection until high voltage breakdown occurs somewhere.

The common solution is to add a DC return path between the antenna connections.

[JohnG]

For static electricity, those sparks are not that long (a few mm), especially for a low humidity room (which is highly likely in a snowstorm in Canada). The spark rate would then be roughly proportion to average current, but I could imagine that the peak current might get pretty high.

For comparison, I used to live in Tucson, AZ, where the humidity could get well below 10% in winter. I could easily get a 2-3 mm spark petting my cat for about 10-20 seconds. My cat really did not like this, BTW.

Some people had office chairs we would call "electric chairs" because if you rolled around on a carpet, and then touched something, you would almost always get a several mm spark that was quite painful. Pretty easy to destroy a computer or sensitive instrument input.

So, I could easily see how a long ungrounded wire in a dry winter snowstorm could pick up a few thousand volts pretty quickly.

Cheers,
John

[TheSteve]

It was a pretty unique combo of temperature, wind and snow for the area the night the sparks occurred. Not weather we usually get.

[bsfeechannel]

Painted by? Like over the horizon radar? Hes in BC canada so I dont know of any sources.

I thought he lived in Winnipeg Manitoba.

ETA.  Yep B.C.  Just checked his "black box" video and he mentions AirCare.

His company, Creative Design Components, is located in Blaine, WA, just one kilometer from the Canadian Border.

[Marco]

It was obviously AC on average ... but on second thought it probably simply build up a voltage on the capacitor with a small current before sparking simultaneously inside and outside, from antenna to coax shield, as someone else said.

Seems more likely than a high power RF signal inducing kV voltages.

[ebastler]

Mr. Carlson must live in a "no earthquakes" region. Otherwise, his seated position seems quite vulnerable...

When I first saw that shot of him sitting in the midst of his test equipment, I was convinced it was some kind of "green screen" montage. Strange perspective, and there even seemed to be some fringing around the contours of his head... But then, towards the end of the video, he reaches over to one of his scopes and pulls out the front end for demonstration! 

I agree; I would probably prefer to wear a helmet in that lab. 

[vk6zgo]

My vote is electrostatics.
They act a bit like RF when they discharge, as obviously the discharge is quite fast.

When I worked at a MF AM Broadcast site, the 400+foot "vertical radiator" would often become charged, &, despite the nice big choke at the base of the mast, which went straight to ground, would arc over at the protective "horn gap".

When this happened, the transmitter would be unaffected, &, in fact, would maintain the arc until it travelled out to the end of the "horn" & extinguished.
During this time, the programme material would be loudly audible, due to the "singing arc" phenomenon.

A lightning strike, either direct, or nearby would cause the transmitter to "grunt" & recycle, so the resultant arc didn't last as long.

Another interesting thing was when I worked at Kalgoorlie.
At. the MF site, we had recently upgraded the remote alarm system, which extended either a "loop" or an "open" to another site to indicate whatever fault was active.

The previous system used a bunch of "Post Office" relays to send these indications, but these had bern replaced with boards fitted with "reed relays", which were much more compact & freed up room on the rack.
We were surprised to find many of these reed relays failing in service, & investigated the reason.

It turned  out that as the ground was hard in Kalgoorlie, the phone lines were not buried quite as deep as in other places.
Either electrostatic charges prior to, or nearby strikes during a storm, produced enough volts across the reed contacts to arc, welding them together.
The old "Post Office" relays would have "shrugged", said "Yeah, whatever", & gone on with their business.

[David Hess]

When I worked at a MF AM Broadcast site, the 400+foot "vertical radiator" would often become charged, &, despite the nice big choke at the base of the mast, which went straight to ground, would arc over at the protective "horn gap".

The same thing happened in the video despite the choke to ground.

The element does not have to charge up for this to happen if an unconnected element does.  When breakdown between the unconnected element and the connected element which is grounded through the choke occurs, the choke has to sink high currents rather than a low continuous charging current.

In this example, the antenna was disconnected from the choke by the input coupling capacitor.  When the coupling capacitor broke down, it acted as a short exposing the choke side of the circuit to the high voltage.

Spark gap driven Tesla coils work the same way.

The spark rate would then be roughly proportion to average current, but I could imagine that the peak current might get pretty high.

The transmission line impedance sets an upper limit on the peak current.  When breakdown occurs, the transmission line drains from the near end to the far end with its characteristic impedance limiting the current.  A capacitor with the same total capacitance would produce a much higher peak current.

[Marco]

The element does not have to charge up for this to happen if an unconnected element does.

But why concoct a theory where an unconnected element slowly charges up to spark to the antenna, when you could just theorize the antenna slowly charging up itself?

If the antenna slowly charges, then a "simultaneous" breakdown on both sides of the capacitor to case/shield ground can complete a circuit which just discharges the capacitor ... and given the complete lack of carbon tracking in the capacitor that is the more likely theory.

[vu2nan]

Just plain old static build-up and discharge?

Regards,

Nandu.

[David Hess]

The element does not have to charge up for this to happen if an unconnected element does.

But why concoct a theory where an unconnected element slowly charges up to spark to the antenna, when you could just theorize the antenna slowly charging up itself?

Because if the element has a low impedance static drain, then it cannot charge up.

If the antenna slowly charges, then a "simultaneous" breakdown on both sides of the capacitor to case/shield ground can complete a circuit which just discharges the capacitor ... and given the complete lack of carbon tracking in the capacitor that is the more likely theory.

Why would there be any carbon tracking?  I have had ceramic and film capacitors fail in exactly the way shown in the video.  Sometimes a capacitor is used this way deliberately.

[Marco]

Why would there be any carbon tracking?

Because the insulation would have been repeatedly burned.

With the capacitor intact the antenna wouldn't have a low impedance path to ground either.

[David Hess]

Why would there be any carbon tracking?

Because the insulation would have been repeatedly burned.

With the capacitor intact the antenna wouldn't have a low impedance path to ground either.

That looked like a ceramic capacitor so the dielectric likely contained no carbon.  Ceramic disc capacitors are sometimes used as spark gaps by cutting a slot into them.

Obviously the capacitor was intact despite breaking down because the antenna line continued to charge to breakdown voltage.  The capacitor was acting as a spark gap switch:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark_gap#Power-switching_devices