Friday, June 18, 2010

Radio Canada International via your toaster ?

In an amusing piece, the website canadaeast.com tells us how residents in Tantramar marsh hear voices from their bathtubs, refrigerators, washing machines and toasters. These are apparently coming from the nearby Sackville transmitter site of Radio Canada International (RCI), though I am slightly puzzled at the sentence “Speaking in tinny, muffled tones, these voices ramble, sing and chat in Italian, Chinese, Portuguese and various other sing-song languages of the world” as RCI does not broadcast in Italian.
(R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)

Artist is, so far, unable to hear Radio Canada International shortwave on a kitchen sink
Victoria Handysides: "The people of the Tantramar marsh [New Brunswick] hear voices. ... Through the miracle of external rectification - aka: 'the rusty bolt effect' - folks around the region have been receiving misdirected radio waves for over half a century. They're unintentionally intercepting Radio Canada International broadcasts from CBC's shortwave broadcasting transmitter, built in the marshy wetlands to send radio waves across the globe. 'The plumbing acts as an antenna,' area artist and burgeoning historian Amanda Christie said. ... Christie, a 33-year-old Sackville resident, is attempting to record the area's buzzing and undocumented history; she's creating an audio/visual art project to tell the tale. ... The filmmaker/gallery worker has never heard the waves through her own appliances, so she's trying to fake it. Christie has constructed a homemade sink, with makeshift antenna copper piping. ... So far, nothing yet - but Christie's resolve is strong."
(CanadaEast Interactive, June 17/Kim Elliott)