The Civil Engineering version of this is SWER electrical distribution. Single-Wire, Earth-Return. And it’s as crazy in implementation as it sounds now.
-Ben Cannon CEO 6x7 Networks & 6x7 Telecom, LLC b...@6by7.net <mailto:b...@6by7.net> > On Jan 25, 2020, at 8:24 AM, Allen McKinley Kitchen (gmail) > <allenmckinleykitc...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Jan 25, 2020, at 08:52, Paul Nash <p...@nashnetworks.ca> wrote: >> >> >>> >>> So, I grew up in South Africa, and one of the more fascinating / >>> cooler things I saw was a modem which would get you ~50bps (bps, not >>> Kbps) over a single strand of barbed wire -- you'd hammer a largish >>> nail into the ground, and clip one alligator[0] clip onto that, and >>> another alligator clip onto the barbed wire. Repeat the process on the >>> other side (up to ~5km away), plug the modems in, and bits would >>> flow... I only saw these used a few times, but always thought they >>> were cool…. >> >> Do you remember anything about the actual type of modem? Or where you >> deployed them? >> > Decades ago, I cobbled together a 20mA current loop interface that may have > been an early version of this .. ran a set of Baudot machines (pre-ASCII, > upper case & figs only) mostly just to have fun with a set of old ASR 32 > teletypes. I used a couple of 500’ spools of zip cord lying on the ground > from end to end. Never mind backhoes - it was lawn-mower vulnerable. > (However, being flat on the ground seemingly made it less vulnerable to > lightning strikes.) > > Of course, this was hardly critical infrastructure! > > Blessings.. > > Allen
