Thunderstorms in New Zealand are not as frequent as what I have observed =
to be the case in the USA (Ohio)

Would be interesting to see if/how it could be done. I believe Nikolai =
Tesla had some device that picked up electricity from the atmosphere using =
a tank type circuit - maybe an urban myth/mad scientist story though.=20

If the device is to see service on the west coast of the Sth Island I =
don't know that there'd be much RF to pick up for power ... there's maybe =
2-3 AM stations and 3-4 FM and 2-3 TV transmitters around (and the area is =
rather mountainous) The island is about the size of Ohio and has about =
1,000,000 people on it.=20



>>> martinrp@VAX2.CONCORDIA.CA 02/25/02 10:40AM >>>
> >>
> This is probably a silly idea but how about a small coil that picks up
stray rf radiation, rectify it and pump up a low leakage electrolytic, =
this
could be used in conjunction with the battery,
> Hmm.  If you're close enough to a major transmitter and you can put up a =
 decent antenna and protect it from lightning...

How about collecting some electrons from the lightning? Some kind of
capacitor and diode arrangement to charge a battery. There's far more =
energy available there, the trick is to collect as much of it as possible =
in the nanoseconds available, and to avoid collecting a direct hit. A =
low-leakage cap with several thousand volts on it could trickle-charge a =
nicad via some current regulator that can cope with the stress...
/\/\/\/*=3DMartin

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