ADSL works over wet string (2017)

ADSL, being essentially a form of alternating current, will pass through an air gap. I was enlightened on this by an AT&T tech who pointed out that one of my ADSL lines had several breaks and could not carry DC but the ADSL signal still came through. The other line was dead so I was running essentially on one wire with an earth ground. Here is an interesting discussion: "Phone line with 1 broken wire still gets ADSL2" https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/9yzp5wr3 Anyway…

100 Mbps Ethernet over barbed wire was demonstrated back in 1995. [0] "Only four properties really affect the performance of most digital transmission structures. The "big four" transmission-line properties are impedance, delay, high-frequency loss, and crosstalk." Dr Johnson then goes to describe these properties in barbed wire. 0: https://www.sigcon.com/Pubs/edn/SoGoodBarbedWire.htm P.S. Yes, this is the Dr. Howard Johnson of the famed "High-Speed Digital Design" book.

Interesting that non-salty water didn't make the string conductive(?) enough - I'd have thought that there might have been enough soluble stuff in string. Also I believe this person runs the ISP I use (and I couldn't speak more highly of it - Andrews & Arnold).

> As a bonus, fit tin cans to both ends and you get voice as well as broadband on the same wet string! Needs tension on the string for that to work. The equivalent of DC bias for analog signal.