Foundations Of Amateur Radio

Foundations of Amateur Radio Yesterday during dinner I heard an interesting story. Apparently there was a farmer who had a chicken coop that he kept warm at night by using a 240 Volt light bulb hooked up to the chicken wire surrounding his chickens. The farmer's property was in the vicinity of a local AM broadcast transmitter. They only found him because the people in the shadow of the chicken coop had bad reception. I'm sitting at the dining table, listening to this tale and wondering, could it be true? My gut feeling was no, but surrounded by food and friends it was hard to put my finger on precisely where this doesn't add up. A little digging revealed that the transmitter in question was the local ABC 6WF transmitter at Hamersley. So, what do we know about this transmitter? First of all, it's a 50 kW AM transmitter. I must confess, I have operated this station. Imagine that, 50 kW AM, with an introductory Foundation License. Anyway, back to the 6WF transmitter. It's located on a block of land, roughl