Radios(boom boxes, antennas) and human interaction

I thought we all did this experiment when we were kids. I did and My guess is that the radio waves get reflected and bounced back slightly out of phase causing the static. In my garage in the corner sits my radio. There are two main spots that if I stand I can affect the quality of the signal. The furthest distance is about 18 feet towards another corner. If I stand in either spot, I can cause static on the channel. My radio has a digital tuner going down two decimal places in increments of 5. If it is on an odd channel the affect is more pronounced.

What also messes with the experimental is the location of the broadcasting towers. Where your signal is coming from will matter as you might actually be blocking the signal.

If messing with the radio with your body get you off, try sticking your car alarm transmitter to the bottom of your chin to extend the range. Instant cranial antenna.

The AM and FM will have different results do to to way the signal is modulated.

Touching the antenna can also help in some cases as well as moving the antenna. But that is obvious.

reply to post by TheRealYoda7


But you would need a way to take the signal and convert it to sound. Such is the extremely rare case when a person's mouth acts as a
receiver. The electrical conductivity of the human body can act as an
antenna. A metallic filling in a tooth, reacting just so with saliva,
can act as a semiconductor to detect the audio signal. The speaker in
this case could be anything that vibrates within the mouth enough to
produce noise, such as bridgework or maybe a loose filling.

Radio waves are part of the electromagnetic spectrum.



Your body generates an electromagnetic field, the result of the eletro-chemical processes which transmit nerve impulses throughout your nervous system.

This is not what some people refer to as an aura. Although, when people say that they can see an aura around some one's body, what they might actually be seeing is a faint glow of ionization around the body; the result of the body-field interacting with oxygen molecules in the air.


Anything that generates electricity, or has an electric current flowing through it, generates an electromagnetic field around it; the strength of the field is usually proportionate to the amount of the electricity present.

Electromagnetic fields do interact when they contact each other; the strength (and effect(s)) of the interaction will depend upon the strengths of the interacting fields.

Since it is the fields that interact, you do not have to actually touch the radio itself to have an effect; the closer you are to the radio the stronger your body field interacts with that of the radio.

When you approach your "antenna-less" radio, your body's electromagnetic field acts as a substitute antenna by augmenting the stubby remains of the radio's actual antenna. You are, as far as the radio is concerned an untuned (radio antennas are to an extent, "tuned by length" to recieve certain frequencies), self-powered antenna.


We neither attract, nor deflect, radio waves, per se; we merely enhance the (radio) reciever's ability to discern the signal by augmenting its electromagnetic field with our own.

posted on 11/28/09 at 21:57


Radio waves are part of the electromagnetic spectrum.



Your body generates an electromagnetic field, the result of the eletro-chemical processes which transmit nerve impulses throughout your nervous system.

This is not what some people refer to as an aura. Although, when people say that they can see an aura around some one's body, what they might actually be seeing is a faint glow of ionization around the body; the result of the body-field interacting with oxygen molecules in the air.


Anything that generates electricity, or has an electric current flowing through it, generates an electromagnetic field around it; the strength of the field is usually proportionate to the amount of the electricity present.

Electromagnetic fields do interact when they contact each other; the strength (and effect(s)) of the interaction will depend upon the strengths of the interacting fields.

Since it is the fields that interact, you do not have to actually touch the radio itself to have an effect; the closer you are to the radio the stronger your body field interacts with that of the radio.

When you approach your "antenna-less" radio, your body's electromagnetic field acts as a substitute antenna by augmenting the stubby remains of the radio's actual antenna. You are, as far as the radio is concerned an untuned (radio antennas are to an extent, "tuned by length" to recieve certain frequencies), self-powered antenna.


We neither attract, nor deflect, radio waves, per se; we merely enhance the (radio) reciever's ability to discern the signal by augmenting its electromagnetic field with our own.


Edit to add:

This interaction between the human body's electromagnetic field and that of a simple radio was the basis of a muscical instrument called the Theramin. The theramin was used to great effect in the classic Sci-Fi movie Forbidden Planet.


[edit on 29-11-2009 by Bhadhidar]

[edit on 29-11-2009 by Bhadhidar]

When you design radio receivers this is an unwanted effect whether the antenna is broken or not, especially for simpler designs as found in many commercial radio receivers. For AM the antenna is typically a wire wrapped around a ferrite rod inside the unit and for FM it is usually a telescopic aerial.

Your body adds a capacitance to the tuned curcuit, changing its tuning and the source impedance to the amplifier. In addition your body acts as a reflector and antenna. It couples what it receives to the antenna.

Antennae should be a multiple of 1/4 wavelength of the recevied frequency to work most efficiently. A broken antenna may be an incorrect length, greatly reducing its efficiency. The higher the frequency the shorter the antenna you require.



[edit on 29/11/2009 by LightFantastic]