18 ms·
What's interesting to me is that one particular station came in clearly, given how the difference in broadcast FM allocated frequencies translates into millimet
by supernova87a 3y ago
What's interesting to me is that one particular station came in clearly, given how the difference in broadcast FM allocated frequencies translates into millimeters of antenna length. (e.g. 98.3 vs 98.7 MHz = 3051mm vs. 3039mm)
Just some flexing / coiling of the cord could mean you would favor a different station or get tons of mixing in of other stations.
Maybe the key is that the author / friend was very close to a broadcasting antenna and that overwhelmed any other station that would equally have been received on the headphone cord otherwise?
- DoctorOetker 3y agoregardless of the veracity, the author was not speaking of the cord lentgh, but the length of the tiny coil of magnet wire attached to the diaphragm inside the ear-phone.
- jameshart 3y ago... no he's not. The length of the wire has no relevance to radio reception, and I don't think it's implied that the classmate permitted the author to dismantle her headphones. He coiled the wire round a bottle to determine its overall length... which is something you could do easily and nondestructively to the headphone lead without incurring the wrath of a classmate.
- DoctorOetker 3y agoYou could certainly be right, as there is no guarantee the measurement was made in a sane way. The reason I concluded he was talking about the diaphragm coil wire is as follows: it would seem a lot simpler to measure the cord length by a simple ruler, whereas precisely as not to destroy the diaphragm coil one may be tempted to estimate that length by counting the number of loops and measuring the diameter... Anyway, the story reads very apocryphal because there are no pictures, its unclear language, and the implication of unintentional FM reception is rather ... hard to fathom.