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Broadcast station spacing and transmitted power levels are based on maximizing coverage to the community of license while minimizing interference to other stations outside of the service contour.
The introduction of digital service to both television and radio has given rise to a modern in-depth study of both the coverage and interference aspects for RF propagation. For FM radio, the interference issues are more acute since the current implementation of digital radio broadcast actually employs first-adjacent-channel spectrum.
To restate the problem: How do you transmit sufficient power to provide adequate reception within your market while limiting the interference that is caused to stations (such as the first-adjacent stations) just outside of your market?
This problem has had no perfect solution, and in fact many broadcasters seem content to allow the interference as a necessary evil. However, a new technology — in fact, it seems a new physics — promises to provide a deterministic solution to this problem.
Clearly defines coverage boundary
A recent discovery of the magtron, the missing magnetic particle that has eluded scientists for centuries, has prompted a reformulation to the original Maxwell’s equations.
For example, we all know that if we take the surface integral over a closed surface of the vector cross product of the time varying electric field and the surface normal vector, we will get the electric charge contained in that closed surface. Since Maxwell didn’t know of the existence of the magtron, his original formula was del dot B = zero. Now, all this has changed with the finding that the magnetic particle, the magtron, actual exists.
It was found by the researchers that by imparting opposite spin polarity to alternate magtrons in a signal emission, the magtrons repel and are ejected from the Poynting vector. The real breakthrough came when it was found that the magtrons repel only at quantum spin rates and that the spin rate diminishes over time. This means that the spin rate can be set higher than a quantum repellant level, and the disintegration of the Poynting vector will occur at a later time defined in addition by the spin rate deceleration.
It turns out that the spin rates can be set to slow to the level of repellant after a time of up to a millisecond, which is more than sufficient for a transmitted signal to reach the borders of a coverage area.
The technology, which has been dubbed RF Leash, provides the capability to define how far the radiated signal propagates.
Instead of a continual degradation in signal strength as would typically be governed by distance squared losses as well as terrain and atmospheric losses, a new mode of propagation is now possible that modifies the typical Poynting vector.
A newly discoved particle, the magtron, interacts with the photon much like a gyroscope, which maintains a stable transmission path in a direction normal to the plane of the rotating electric and magnetic vectors. The magtron is the glue that maintains this quadrature relationahip. It has been shown in lab tests that if the magtron is removed, the quadrature relationship falls apart, and the photon propagation behaves randomly. Since millions of these particle make up a typical RF radiation stream, the combined effect is to null the energy being radiated. An implementation of this technology has been developed in the lab in the form of an RF Leash antenna.
The box shows the differential form of Maxwell’s equations modified to include the magtron magnetic particle flux density, ?M.
Modified Maxwell equations for magtron flux density Still in research
The application of this technology is not perfect. When one reaches the point in space where the radiation from the RF Leash antenna changes from propagation to disintegration, there is a conversion to thermal radiation with an associated localized warming. Too much thermal radiation may result in the possibility of injury to birds, animals and humans. There is additional concern that an increased impact on global warming will result if this technology is deployed widely.
In related research, an article in the November 2009 issue of Scientific American discusses the existence of a magnetic monopole with experiments by French and German scientists. It was found that an increase in temperature led to head-to-tail flips of these monopoles. This result seems to be related to the thermal radiation phenomena found by the RF Leash researches, but the full implication is not yet known.
While this has been a fairly technical review of ongoing research, the reason we bring it to you is that it might lead to a broadcast antenna product that allows the broadcaster to select the distance of radiation, as which point the radiation stops. This will completely eliminate interference beyond the coverage area and will eliminate the problems currently being debated surrounding digital radio power increases.
Dr. Mead Citron also wrote the article “Researchers Propose Energy Harvesting” in the April 1, 2009 issue of Radio World.
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