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Why do overhead planes drain my wind-up radio?

I garden under the flight path to Bristol airport and listen to the radio. I,ve tried to use a wind up radio but every time a plane flies over the battery drains instantly and i need to wind it up again. Considering a plane comes over every 5 minutes it's impossible to use one. Why does this happen?

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Categories: Technology.

Tags: technology, transport.

 

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Pedant says:

This is an example of false correlation in the human brain. You think you can see a pattern of planes affecting your radio but, in reality, it's just coincidece. You're obviously not winding up your radio enough or perhaps the rechargeable battery is knackered!

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posted on 2010-02-18 17:50:43 | Report abuse


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Paul_Pedant says:

A good radio has circuitry to compensate for variable signal strength, boosting amplification when the signal falls, to maintain volume.

Low planes reflect VHF signals, and destructive interference between direct and reflected signal can cause the signal to fall and the circuit to boost, thereby draining the battery faster.

Add to that the regular spacing of planes in a landing pattern, being about the same interval as your battery life from one winding, and the presence of a plane is probably just using up the last flicker of power every time.

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posted on 2010-02-23 23:37:59 | Report abuse


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