4G fried my brain

Thread Starter

hrs

Joined Jun 13, 2014
394
Hi,

I was at a theme park today and noticed this, see photo. How close can you get to a cell tower before it starts to melt your face off? As in the photo the beam probably passes over the platform at a narrow angle, but suppose you're in the beam.

One of my uncles who was in the navy said they could cook a seagull on a bouy with a focused radar beam, though I would think a military radar has considerably more power than a cell tower.
 

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ronsimpson

Joined Oct 7, 2019
2,985
melt your face off?
Please post a picture of you face. lol
focused radar beam
Radar is a very tight beam. A cell antenna is trying to see (and be seen) over 360 degrees. Looking at that antenna it might be 180 or even 90 degrees. It is hard to see.

It might be a wifi internet connection to the nearest town. I have some thing like that to talk to town. Spreading 1 watt out over even 9 degrees for wifi is not comparable to 1000 watts in a microwave, where all the energy hits the target.
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,157
I don't think you have anything to worry about. Of course you have the option to worry yourself sick if you want to, but that is your choice.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. You have the former in abundance, the latter -- not so much.
 

Thread Starter

hrs

Joined Jun 13, 2014
394
Please post a picture of you face. lol
:DIn a quick search I found that cell towers spread at an angle of maybe 10 degrees.

9W 1W? That's not much. Is a cell tower in the same range?
I don't think you have anything to worry about. Of course you have the option to worry yourself sick if you want to, but that is your choice.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. You have the former in abundance, the latter -- not so much.
It was a joke.
 
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Ian0

Joined Aug 7, 2020
9,667
There was a big debate here in Britain about schools earning money by renting out their buildings for the telephone companies to install mobile telephone masts on the roofs, and the dangers to the children from the RF from the masts.
No-one seemed to realise that the antennae are directional so the lowest signal would be directly underneath, and the proximity of a mast would mean that the children's mobile telephones would have to transmit at a lower power to communicate with the mast so the children would be exposed to a lower amount of RF.
 

k1ng 1337

Joined Sep 11, 2020
940
I don't think you have anything to worry about. Of course you have the option to worry yourself sick if you want to, but that is your choice.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. You have the former in abundance, the latter -- not so much.
While I agree with you entirely I think there's one more thing to note - contingency. I certainly don't have the knowledge that many of you here have on the issue but since I was a child I have been able to "hear" electromagnetism significantly more than my peers. This effect does diminish when I travel to the mountains and it has been a lifelong goal of mine to somehow travel deep into the earth to acquire as much shielding as possible to test if if I still hear it. Clinically what I hear is characterized as tinnitus (ringing in the ears due to damage) but I am far from convinced. With this in mind I do have a modest fear about how much power is being increasingly transmitted.. I should note that what I hear does change in frequency and amplitude with several simultaneous frequencies at once and depending on where I stand, I noticed one field especially strong leading into my basement. This could very well be psuedo science or just tinnitus but I have been monitoring it for a very long time and can only describe it as electrical in nature. I have long suspected that I have a greater upper hearing range and am just hearing those oscillations in addition to the normal range of sounds that shouldn't normally be heard (like all those poor dogs and cats) such as a 32k watch crystal or infrared carrier signals. What I hear sounds like being in a room with an old tube TV, try it for yourself.. the effect is pretty obvious to realize in my opinion..
 
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Thread Starter

hrs

Joined Jun 13, 2014
394
Someone on the internet claims that an LTE antenna emits about 20W. So if you hug an LTE antenna that might not be good for you per se. I was just mildly surprised to see it so close to where humans dwell. Then again it might be wifi like ronsimpson said.
 

ronsimpson

Joined Oct 7, 2019
2,985
I used to build radio stations. Several are 100,000 watts. Some as small as 1000 watts. Some of the towers are right in the middle of town. Or on top of the tallest building. The Navy has several mega watt stations. I an certain every branch of defense has mega watt stations. My friend manages mega watt short wave stations all over the world. I have a 100 watt transmitter in my office. I an 2 feet away from a wifi router in a house with 4 routers and many many computers and IoT transceivers all over the house, all spitting 2.5G and 5Ghz signals. The world if full of RF. Look I have a transceiver right ere in my pocket next to my ....... I have a cell phone that spends much of the day pressed up against me.

20W as you go flying by on a ride is nothing compared to things you find every day.
 

Deleted member 115935

Joined Dec 31, 1969
0
Re sea gulls
we used to "upset" them to make them fly off of the sea wall, with one of the navy radars,
( it was slewed into a camera so easy to see the gulls a mile or so away )

But that took a good time on full power CW ,
even at full power, and if it is a mobile tower you were in its beam for a fraction of a second,

Still, crazy place to put an antenna

We also used to have fun with the management car park at the site,
All those lovely new merKs / beamers / audios with there "new" fangled electronic locking in the 70's
we could have great fun,
 

k1ng 1337

Joined Sep 11, 2020
940
What measuring equipment did you use?

Can you actually hear a dog whistle or a watch crytal or an IR remote control operating?
I play many instruments so I have used that mathematical knowledge to distinguish noise from what I perceive as a frequency, harmonics, resonance etc. but no I have not done any official tests but I'll look into creating an unbias test for myself.

And for your second question no I cant hear specific changes such as a tv remote because I hear so much interference at any one time. And when I refer to a watch crystal or remote I am talking about radiative coupling of the circuit into space or some vibrational energy transfer not the light of the infrared LED flashing itself.

I'm aware my findings are inconclusive at best, none the less it is a real thing I interact with daily and my hearing has been checked and is normal.
 
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