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Subj: ELF and audio modulation
Date: 5/30/00 8:59:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: hutchins strato (Frank Hutchins)
Greetings from Sebring, Florida,U.S.A.
I am Frank Hutchins, W2MAV since 1939. I have always been interested in low frequency transmissions and would like to know more about operations at audio frequencies.
Local club members have mentioned H.A.A.R.P. and Russian ELF operations used for warfare to make the enemy sick using electromagnetic energy. Then, there is the strange low frequency audio rumbling in the southwestern part of country that certain people are hearing.
I am interested to know more on operations lower than nine khz, since this is an unregulated spectrum. Of course, I realize that this spectrum is used by the U.S.Navy for communications, as well as the Russians.
Finally, if anyone is familiar with audio modulation at V.L.F. I would like to know how and if anyone has been able to effect voice transmissions.
As a former Radar test engineer in W.W. II , I have seen the secret technology of the 40's and am still looking into the future at 80 years.
Frank Hutchins, E.E.
Reply 1:
Very good to hear from you, Frank. I'm afraid the local club members may have been taking the Art Bell radio show a little too seriously. HAARP doesn't actually transmit ELF. It uses powerful HF signals to cause localized heating of small patches of the ionosphere for radio research... including among other things, the possibility of exciting the ionosphere to generate weak but globally receivable ELF signals for submarine communication. This would be a great advantage, as it would remove the need for huge, costly, and environmentally questionable ELF transmitter/antenna systems on the ground.
As for the Russians, the difficulties of generating appreciable radiated power at ELF would make its use against troops very unlikely on something as large as even a modest-size battlefield. Also, it is extremely simple to shield against very long wavelengths. I wonder if they could be thinking of the microwave transmissions formerly directed at the US embassy in Moscow, which many people feel were strong enough to produce serious health effects.
Low-frequency vibrations such as you mention are most intriguing. Our Natural Radio & Propagation page, accessible through the LW Home Page, plus the Pages by Our Members section of the home page, contain links to sites specializing in VLF, natural radio phenomena, and science being done at these frequencies. Hope you find it interesting, and I hope some of the other readers may have some interesting thoughts to share with you. -JHD
Subj: Beacon loggings - new antenna!
Date: 5/30/00 12:34:50 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: tpauly twcnyrr (Tim Pauly)
Greetings,
Construction of a 4 foot diameter loop antenna has made my capacity to hear beacons much greater!
Just today, I logged the following beacons, even finding more than one beacon on the same frequency by turning the
loop. I need help with a couple of these though...
YMW Maniwaki Canada 366 kHz
2R ?????????????? 372 kHz
(Anybody know what this is??? I am 100% sure I am hearing "2R")
UL Montreal 249 kHz
CJY Utica, NY 276 kHz
OZ ???? 279 kHz
(Listed as Fort Rucker, AL but on 212 kHz!)
HEU Schenectady, NY 357 kHz
JJH Johnstown, NY 524 kHz
(I can hear this one on my car radio as far away as Nelliston, NY!)
PYA Penn Yann, NY 262 kHz
YGK ????? 267 kHz Any ideas?
PN Port Menier, Canada 361 kHz
YG Charlottetown, Canada 348 kHz
YY Mont Joli, Canada 341 kHz
FC Fredericton, Canada 327 kHz
YPP ????????? 304 kHz Any ideas?
YLQ La Tuque, Canada 290 kHz
ZV Sept-Iles, Canada 274 kHz
YGK ??????? 264 kHz Any ideas?
CLB Wilmington, NC! 219 kHz
ML ??????? 392 kHz Any ideas?
JT Stephenville, Canada 391 kHz
YSL St. Leonard, Canada 404 kHz
BC Baie Comeau, Canada 415 kHz
QY Sydney, Canada 264 kHz
YGK ??????? 264 kHz
YQA Muskoka, Canada 273 kHz
YLQ La Tuque, Canada 290 kHz
BK Utica, NY 331 kHz
 The beacons are listed in the order that I received them. All frequencies listed are those actually tuned on the receiver
for best possible reception of the beacon, and in most cases are 1 kHz above the actual beacon frequency.
Not bad for one day's worth of beacon hunting! I didn't realize I could receive so many. Up until now I thought I could
only receive a few, the furthest I had ever heard was Montreal.
Tim Pauly
N2GFT - Beacon MV 197.6 kHz, Little Falls NY
(Photo at left shows Tim's wife, 5 ft. high, standing beside the finished loop. It presently consists of four turns and resonates on the AM broadcast band and 160m with a standard variable capacitor in series and a toroidal transformer for coupling to the receiver. Even with the resonance so high, he logged these stations on LF with the antenna and receiver both in the living room! He plans to add turns to tune the loop at LF.)
Subj: Lightning map of the US
Date: 5/22/00 6:39:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: lyle mlecmn (Lyle Koehler)
Want to know where all that QRN is coming from? Go to
http://www.lightningstorm.com/lightningstorm/gpg/lex1/mapdisplay_free.jsp
--
Lyle, K0LR
http://www.computerpro.com/~lyle
Subj: LF: CFH down, in refit
Date: 5/20/00 7:38:24 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: AlanMelia btinternet (Alan Melia)
To: rsgb_lf_group blacksheep.org (rsgb_lf_group)
Hi All, I had a message from Jon ( VE1FTL ) this morning advising us that
the Canadian Navy transmitter CFH on 137kHz, and located at Halifax, Nova
Scotia, is off air for a refit. It will be down for approximately two weeks,
whilst the new Harris transmitter is installed. I have no idea what effect
this will have on the ERP but if it is more efficient as Jon suggests, I
suspect it will be run at the same ERP with a lower electricity bill
accruing to the Canadian Navy.
Subj: Time station at 50khz
Date: 5/19/00 12:10:19 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: ultra-bd execpc (BDieser)
Hello,
Just recently, I have been picking up a time signal broadcast at 50khz
during the day. I see that there are two time stations at that frequency,
one in Czech., and one in Russia. Given that its during the day, and that
at the moment my loop antenna is inside the house (working on it yet
again), it does not seem likely that its either on of these two stations.
Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
-Barry
Subj: Cool Site
Date: 5/18/00 11:08:03 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: schmitta blacksburg (Alvin P Schmitt - KE4GVG)
Some very interesting information on antenna design can be found at
http://www.cebik.com/radio.html which is L. B. Cebik's site. Some of the
interesting articles are "Some Preliminary Notes on the Ground", "Down
to Earth Verticals", and "Regional Differences"..... His site also contains information about building
top hats using angle aluminum instead of tubular aluminum.
Subj: DGPS decoding
Date: 5/18/00 1:05:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: lr fluent (Lee Reynolds)
...well, I'll bet there are not a few of us that weren't totally thrilled
when a fair part
of the band the band was given over to DGPS warblers, so........
There may yet be a low cost way of putting identifiability back into the
DGPS slice.
RadioRaft 3.20, it is claimed by the author, now supports DGPS decoding with a
Hamcomm type dongle or an external modem. It'll show stuff like station
reference
number, message type, station health, etc.
I'll be receiving my updated RR sometime in the next week or so and I'll be
reporting
my success (or lack thereof!)
Lee
Subj: Longwave NDB's in Southeast Asia
Date: 5/18/00 12:39:06 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: mark_in_taiwan hotmail (Mark)
Hi! My name is Mark, and I'm a longwave enthusiast in central Taiwan. I've picked up quite a lot of NDB's recently, despite the summer noise on the low frequencies. However, I don't have a clue as to where a single one of these beacons are, except that I can guess that the one I picked up called "HKG" is probably Hong Kong. I tried going to the "AirNav" website (http://www.airnav.com), but that site only searches American beacons. Does anyone know of a website (or at least a book) whereby I can look up the call letters of an NDB in Southeast Asia, and it would tell me where it is and the exact frequency?
Just for your information, here's the list of what I've picked up in the last few days. (All frequencies might be off by as much as 2 or 3 kHz because the audio filter in my receiver is 3 kHz.) 211 DJ
224 MS (very weak)
290 BM
338 HKG
342 WA
345 BS
360 HL
375 NN
380 YU
395 KG
405 MD
415 KW
525 KU Any information will be greatly appreciated!
Mark
Subj: Activity at 40 kHz
Date: 5/17/00 2:28:22 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: johnlewis plattsburghedu (John Lewis)
I'm new to VLF Radio, and am running a 40 kHz receiver as a student
project. I've found that every Sunday starting at 24:00 and ending
Monday 05:00 the output saturates due to a strong signal. I'm located
in upstate New York, 65 miles south of Montreal. Any ideas as to
origin?
--
John Lewis
Professor of Physics
224 Hudson Hall
Plattsburgh State University
101 Broad Street
Plattsburgh, NY 12901
Subj: Central NY NDB ID change
Date: 5/16/00 10:34:21 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: reynoldsf rlafmil (Frank Reynolds)
219 TST is now 219 FZ. Confirmed by Don Moth, W2MPK also.
Frank Reynolds
Subj: New Beacon
Date: 5/15/00 8:30:10 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: w2mpk dreamscape (Don Moth)
There is now a new beacon on 220khz with 400 hz modulation in the Syracuse,
NY area in place of the "TST" beacon previously on that frequency. It
appears to have come on the air at 8:00 AM EDST today May 15th.
Subj: XMGR Returns!
Date: 5/14/00 1:57:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: les highnoonfilm
Hello to all in the LWCA.
Some of you may remember me from the old days. I used to operate lowfer
station, XMGR from Kittery, Maine. This beacon was copied in 17 grid squares, as far away as 600 miles, for about
three years. The beacon then operated again briefly from Cleveland, Tennessee
where it was copied in three more grid squares.
I was also able to copy 19 lowfer stations, like
VP (Vince Pinto, who started all this
nonsense), TH, HRM, ABC, WI, Etc. Those QSL cards are among my prizes.
Recently, I was given the old OK beacon, and have spent the better part of
a year preparing my shack for
operation. I erected a 40 foot vertical, with tophat. I also laid
down a screen of chicken wire under
our new sod. It extends out to 200 feet in all directions. We also sunk
dozens of ground rods at the base.
Ground radials were added out to 400 feet in as many directions as
possible, ost of them being attached
to ground rods or metallic objects.
I then repaired the old XMGR loading coil, which was wound over 15 years
ago out of 10/40 Litz wire.
It's wound over a glass form and was always very efficent.
Two nights ago, I returned the station to the air!
XMGR is on 190Khz, and it's on 24/7. Beacon is located in Helena,
Alabama...just outside of Birmingham.
We are in Grid EM63. Reception reports can QSL via KT40Z in the call book
or directly to les highnoonfilm.com
Currently XMGR is sending only CW, but I am interested in trying out
digital modes such as slow cw, BFSK, or
others. Suggestions are welcome!
I still plan
to use my old LF Engineering
converter (fed by a 400 foot long wire) into my Kenwood TS-530. The Kenwood
has lots of narrow
CW filters and also a DSP unit from MFJ. It's the same rig that enabled me
to copy so many Lowfers way back when.
73's,
Les Rayburn
Subj: VLF Transmissions on Music CDs
Date: 5/13/00 1:25:37 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: gerhard kircherat (Gerhard Kircher)
Hi!
Funny thing - I found out that some music CDs (surely vinyls as well ...)
contain traces of captured VLF transmissions sent by some of the large
VLF transmitters. I namely identified GBR/Rugby on Mike Oldfields
"Tubular Bells" by GBR sending its call sign in CW (which it apparently
did back in 1972/73). Look at http://www.stormloader.com/gkircher/vlfcd/
for more.
-gerhard
Subj: 76Hz transmissions
Date: 5/8/00 11:56:47 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: RLetts groupwiseswineduau (Rod Letts)
Hello, I am trying to find out if the 76Hz ELF transmissions from the US
are still operational. I would like to try to detect them here in
Australia. Does anyone know anything about these transmissions. See
HAARP on www.
Rod Letts VK3ZLW
email me RLetts swin.ed.au
Subj: RW Beacon moved to 166.5 Khz
Date: 5/7/00 6:26:56 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: LBOSKY aol (Paul Signorelli)
Please listen for the 'RW' Beacon now on the NEW frequency of
166.57 kHz as of 5/7/00. The beacon is sending 'RW' in CW at 15 WPM.
We changed frequency to avoid interference from a high powered French station on 162 kHz.
The RW Beacon is located in Colorado Springs and is on the air 24 hrs.
You can check the performance of your receiver and antenna by listening for the Non Directional Radio Beacon 'CO' that operates on 407 kHz sending MCW (A2) from Colorado Springs.
It has been heard in the midwest at night.
If you would like more technical info on LF reception send for
'Tech Info Sheet'.
Please send day time and night time signal reports to:
w0rw aol.com
PO Box 6069
Colorado Springs, CO 80934
Subj: My page...
Date: 5/3/00 9:06:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: RichardGasparik siemenssk (Gasparik Richard)
Hi LF-ers...
I have been interested in LF for LF for about 1 year and I'm transmitting on 136kHz.
You may visit my web site http://www.qsl.net/om2tw
I'm making a lot of information for my web site, so more info coming
soon...
73 de Rich OM2TW
Subj: ARI URL moved
Date: 5/3/00 6:36:50 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: cestag dadait (cesare tagliabue)
I signal that the Associazione Radioamatori Italiani ARI has moved to www.ari.it
73 Cesare
Cesare Tagliabue I 5 TGC
url: http://www.dadacasa.com/i5tgc
Subj: Beacon MV
Date: 5/1/00 3:42:09 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: tpauly twcnyrr (Tim Pauly)
Greetings,
Beacon MV (Little Falls, NY) is off the air until we can repair damage to the antenna/transmitter. Winter icing got moisture
into the transmitter, and the antenna needs some design changes as well....
Thanks...
Tim
Subj: vlf Beacon
Date: 5/1/00 12:07:34 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: psmith xmission (Pete Smith)
Hello
We have taken ZTM off the air till fall so we can mow the yard and cut
down on lighting strikes ... many thanks to all who helped in every way
... 73 pete k7ztm
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