"Walt Davidson" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 9 Aug 2008 14:35:25 +0100, "Alec"
wrote:

Back at about the same time the BBC had (and still has) a powerful
transmitter on 200khz (now198) a local farmer who lived close to the
station
built a large tuning coil in the loft and lit his house using fluorescent
tubes.

He was successfully prosecuted for stealing electricity or something
similar.

If this is true (and I have no reason to doubt it), did it make the
signal weaker for everybody else?

73 de G3NYY



Only in the near field (at the site). Theoretically, there is a limit to
the number of receivers for any one signal (swamping), but that number has
never been approached.

As for the original story, I can verify that it CAN be done, and is done
inadvertantly in places where homes are found in the area of an 'antenna
farm'. In Portland, for instance, the antenna farm for the high powered FM
signals is in a residential shared area. Some homes within that area that
use fluorescent lighting still have some light from the tubes with the
switch turned off. This is not full light, but neither are they using a
tuned circuit.