THE LF NOTEBOOK #41                         (From The LOWDOWN, August, 1996)
The Mailbag, News and Comments About LF Radio, Etc.
John H. Davis, Box 367, Warm Springs, GA   31830
-E-mail - johnhdavis@aol.com -Longwave BBS - 706/672-0360
-Fax - (706) 672-0964 -World Wide Web http://users.aol.com/lwcanews/


    August...what is it?  We know June is Dairy Month, the month for weddings, 
and the summer solstice.  July is notable for Canada Day, Independence Day and 
sweet corn.  Labor Day isn't until September.  About the only distinction 
August can claim is the proverbial dog days.  Who wants to claim that?
    Around here, at least, we've got enough to keep us busy so we won't be 
thinking about the heat.  (Of course, not thinking about it can be a problem, 
too.)  As I write this, the Centennial Olympic Games are preparing to start.  
As you receive it, they will be just ending, and Georgia will begin preparation 
for the Paralympics.  After that comes all the cleanup!  Maybe we should do as 
the Romans do, and everybody just go away on vacation for the rest of the 
month. That sounds like a civilized approach.


'Electric Enigma,' A First American Review
    
    As we announced last month, the double CD set of Steve McGreevy's natural 
radio recordings is now in release.  The price is lower than previously ex-
pected, too.  It's now 18.50 Pounds Sterling, plus 3 Pounds for airmail to the 
U.S., from the source mentioned last time.
    My copy arrived without difficulty, and I was quite impressed.
    Electric Enigma is truly one of a kind. Not many record companies would 
approach a radio experimenter who spends a good part of his life in the wilder-
ness listening to static, and suggest a project based on his recordings.  Even 
fewer would have the courage to release the project without meddlesome frills, 
such as musical bridges or Orson Welles-type narrative.  You will not find any 
of that here.
    Irdial recognized the wonder and mystery inherent in Steve's recordings of 
whistlers, aurora, and other amazing natural phenomena.   And, they had the 
integrity to present those recordings in the purest practical form.
    I'll admit this faithful adherence to the originals won't appeal to every-
one.  The gorgeous electrical "sounds" of our planet mingle with clicks and 
crashes of lightning.  I know from first-hand experience how my own family's 
eyes glaze over if I approach with tapes of my own whistler recordings. 
    However, if our home world fascinates you, and the forces and energies 
surrounding our Earth fill you with awe, then you'll have no trouble focusing 
on the innate beauty of these recordings.
    Personally, I found it easy...even unavoidable...to lock onto the almost 
rythmic patterns, the endless themes and variations, as it were, of this 
natural music. The longer tracks are so absorbing as to be restful.  All this 
is directly attributable to the faithfulness with which the tracks are 
presented.  This integrity extends to the two booklets which accompany the 
discs.  The first contains Steve's descriptions of natural radio phenomena, 
the existing scientific research into them, and how he got involved in record-
ing them.  The other booklet contains more details on the individual types of 
sounds, how to listen for them, and recording notes that read like a partic-
ularly interesting travel log.
    There is no higher math or subatomic physics here. But there is no talking 
down to the reader, no over-simplification, no fuzzy generalities either.  
The technical level is about ideal for readers of Scientific American or New 
Scientist, but most anyone who remembers some science from school will be able 
to follow along.  The tone of both booklets can be summed up with this excerpt 
from the first one: "Like star gazing, Natural Radio listening redirects the 
mind and heart toward the wonder and beauty of the natural world."
    Just because the tracks are faithful and the booklets are literate, don't 
get the idea that this is some drab, technical CD package!  Quite the contrary, 
Electric Enigma has to be one of the most visually appealing CD sets in my 
collection.  The front of the set (and the front of the first booklet) is a 
beautifully reproduced University of Alaska video frame, depicting one of the 
first Red Sprites ever captured in color.  (That theme is carried over in the 
artwork on the discs themselves.)  The back of the set is a color photo of 
Steve with a handheld receiver/antenna combination, looking somewhat Arthurian.  
Photos and layout inside the booklets are first rate, and magnificently 
complement the text.
    Was there anything I didn't like about the set?  Well, just one small 
detail...the tracks end a bit abruptly.  During longer tracks, I tended to 
have my eyes closed, visualizing myself under the Northern Lights somewhere 
in Canada or Alaska, only to suddenly find myself back in my audio room.
    It would also be nice to have another hour or two of Natural Radio sounds.  
Fortunately, a supplemental disc is now in the works, and will be announced 
later.


On And On About Online

    Seems like I do go on and on about computer-based communication, don't I.  
Well, it is a very handy way of getting in touch with other people...faster 
than the Postal Service, and yet not so peremptory as waking someone from a 
pleasant nap under the air conditioner!  And then there's the Internet...
infested with loonies, but also an unbeatable resource for locating vital 
information.

    E-mail is probably the most everyday-useful aspect of the electronic age.  
Until now, you had to be signed up with an online service like America Online, 
CompuServe, or one of the others; or else have an account with a local 
independent service provider.  But lately, advertiser-supported Juno has been 
making major waves!
    Quite a few of our members...even some with other accounts...have begun 
using Juno's e-mail service.  Apparently, you compose and read your mail 
offline.  While you're connected to the service to send and receive new mail, 
you're briefly treated to an advertising screen.  With other services, where 
you're being charged for connect time, there's nothing quite so aggravating 
as receiving advertising by e-mail.  (It's like having junk mail arrive with 
postage due.)  But with Juno, there's no charge at all.  If they have no 
local access number in your area, you use a toll-free number.
    As much e-mail access as I already have, it would be redundant for me.  
But if you're interested, you can call 1-(800)-654-JUNO and they'll mail the 
necessary software to you;  or, if you already have e-mail, you can contact 
them at signup@juno.com and they'll mail it to you;  or, save time by down-
loading it.  If you have Internet capability, try 
	   ftp.cbus/mindspring.com/users/rwkober/misc/Juno1.exe  
    It's also on the Longwave BBS.  And, as with all free distribution software 
I mention here, I'll be glad to copy it onto your blank 1.44 Meg floppy if 
you'll send a stiff mailer and SASE. 
    They're signing up one new account a minute, and have recently upgraded 
facilities to handle the additional load.  The software is PC based, but Lyle 
Koehler (LEK) reports there's a similar service for Mac users from a company 
called IDT Internet:  "However, they will try to sell full Internet service 
and don't have a toll-free number for those of us who live in the boonies. 
The IDT number is 1-800-IDT-8996."

    The Longwave Home Page continues to grow, with additions or modifications 
about every week.  During special events, you'll find additional temporary 
goodies.  Once in a while, there are particularly timely news bulletins, such 
as the announcement we had of the July 9 solar flare (the biggest one in four 
years; should have been grand for natural radio hunters).  So, check the page 
regularly.
    When you do check it, keep in mind something that occasionally trips up 
folks who use a particular Web site often.  If your Web browser caches source 
files and graphics to disk, the next time you call up the same page, you'll 
probably be looking at what you already had before!  Therefore, any time you 
access the Longwave Home Page...or one of the pages you can reach from there...
if you don't see convincing evidence that your browser is connecting to the 
AOL server and reading a new response, then you'll need to click the Reload 
button to make it do so.  (At least, it's called Reload on the browsers I use.  
There could be some other equivalent on yours.)  That's the way to ensure 
you're getting the latest version of the page.
    Apparently, quite a few non-members (hopefully, that means not-yet-members) 
have been finding the page.  We seem to be listed on one or two of the major 
search directories now.  Thanks to whomever thought of submitting us to them!  
I hadn't yet done that myself.
    Remember, you can get the page now at http://users.aol.com/lwcanews/ 
which is somewhat less error- prone than the longer arrangement we had before. 
For the past few months, you could use the long or the short form, but the 
short form required one more click to get to the whole page. Beginning this 
month, the short URL above takes you directly to the home page, while the old 
way requires the extra click.

    Steve McGreevy's Natural Radio Home Page is online now, and will be a 
prime source of natural radio information. It's at 
	   http://www.netcom.com/~spmcgrvy/  
    It contains archives of articles on VLF monitoring, latest results of 
Steve's own expeditions, audio samples, and other news.  Check it out.

    The Longwave BBS, despite theoretically being on summer schedule, actually 
continues in operation 24 hours on most days anyway.  I'm just not checking 
on it myself as often as I do during the winter.  It's receiving pretty heavy 
use, both from existing members and from people who discover us via the Web!
    Both previous and new users need to remember about registering, via 
completion of the survey we've talked about before.  Since the end of May, 
you have one or two (sometimes three) log-ons before you're reclassified as a 
new user again, and have to wade through the whole batch of new user screens 
all over.  That's unless you've registered; then you don't have to go through 
that.  Saves a lot of time to register!
    And a final note...If you have something for this column, you can always 
leave it on the BBS, addressed to John Davis, or better yet, to Sysop.  
However, while all Lowdown editors are welcome to use the BBS for information 
gathering, not all of them presently do so.  If you leave a message for them 
on the BBS, I may not see it soon enough to forward to them in a timely 
manner.  It's better to use the e-mail or postal addresses at the top of each 
column for quickest results.


Eye Above The Sky

    The relatively young Polar satellite, with its ultraviolet and x-ray 
imagers, has been delighting researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight 
Center.  Its purpose is to keep an eye on Earth's auroral zones, which 
(whether visible to the eye or not) form a continuous oval ring around each 
pole in ultraviolet light.
    According to Sky & Telescope magazine, the satellite got particularly good 
pictures of an intense auroral storm on April 9th (perhaps they have printed 
or will be printing some of them; at this writing, I'm not sure).  I would 
expect the period July 10 - 13 was probably also pretty interesting.  It 
would be fascinating to relate these images to recorded VLF natural radio 
signals.  It will also be interesting to see if the ultraviolet and x-ray 
detectors see any thunderstorm activity that appears to correlate with 
mysterious atmospheric gamma ray bursts.


BPSK Update

    The day after the Fourth of July saw a "mini convention" of LF and BPSK 
enthusiasts in Santa Barbara.  Cliff Buttschardt (ex-W6HDO, now K7RR; e-mail 
at either cbuttsch@juno.com or cbuttsch@slonet.org) reports: "We swapped 
information and hooked up a few newer radios, along with the updating of 
DeCarles version 4.7 disks.  Dave Curry showed how to hook up some opto 
isolators to automatically take advantage of the newer version of Coherent.  
His latest version of the active whip really picks up the performance of the 
transceiver that I was used to.  The HDO(nul) beacon was heard on a three foot 
whip in downtown Santa Barbara over a nearly 100 mile path.  Three LA area 
stations including Dave's PLI were heard with no effort.  This location is 
about 1000 meters from an AM broadcast station as well!"
    "Bill Lake, Curry and I thought that for the next Winter season we should 
all be on the same frequency 184.3 KHz.  This is the preset frequency of the 
SB (Santa Barbara) beacon.  From what we can gather, this is clear for most of 
the West.  We need to determine how clear this frequency is in the Eastern 
states." (Any volunteers to check this out?  Let Cliff know directly, or drop 
a line to this column.)
    "The plan is to time cycle three or more stations starting on integral 
minutes and further to split that minute between CCW and BPSK/PSKL.  In this 
manner CW will allow aural users to contribute while the digital modes are also 
broadcast."
    "All three of us are constructing synthesized receivers on 1844 KHz for 
use with digital modes AND allowing SSB voice to be used for coordination.  
Bill Lake and I have been examining the AF9Y software which is to be used in 
future moonbounce and Mars Surveyor programs for possible use."  Cliff will 
be giving the Mars Explorer talk at the next AMSAT convention in Tucson, Az.
    "We have concluded that we must leave HDO(nul) on for the present and 
consider doing some PSKL experimenting on 80 meters.  Bill and I live some 100 
miles apart and have looked carefully at the shifting of signals using the 
TUNER program.  For the most part we feel there is less than plus/minus one 
half hertz shift during the daytime.  At night, for that small a distance, we 
still do not know but we will be making some measurements.  I am considering 
putting on a small carrier on 80 meters somewhere just to make some 
comparisons.  In the end I think we will end up on 3610 KHz.  As we advertised 
earlier, we were to be on 1844 Khz, selected as this was 800 Hz higher than 
the internal crystal in the A/D DeCarle box (and in the IBM)  but Bill has a 
terrible intermod problem from a local BC station there.  This led us to 80 
meters rather than 160 M, but does not preclude any other from that same 
frequency. Another interesting item--the moonbounce guys have taken an interest 
as well." 
    On July 12, Cliff reset the carrier frequency of HDO(nul) back on 187.65.  
"Sometime this week, probably Wednesday, the beacon lost a crystal heater and 
was about one hertz high.  We had a very severe lightning storm Wednesday.  
The rig had some black spots at the antenna connector but only the crystal 
heater seemed to have failed. Do try again for copy during the summer season!"


On To The Mailbag

    And I thought this month's column was going to be skimpy? Ha!  Actually, 
correspondence was down somewhat, but not nearly like some past years.  Good 
work, folks.  Plus, I found a couple letters that arrived too late for the 
June column, but early enough that I managed to misplace them before the July 
column.   Sorry about that, but they are still newsworthy.

    -Bart Prater (VA, N4ZV; Smith Mtn. Lake, VA) is another correspondent who 
encourages summer listening.  He and Todd Roberts (ABC, WD4NGG; Hilton Head 
Island, SC) were still hearing each other's MedFERs from time to time as 
summer began.  "So," he says, "I hope some of our fellow experimenters will 
try a little warm weather DX--maybe even operating--this summer.  They might 
be surprised."
    Bart advises that MedFER GDY is now signing as CSA on its new frequency, 
as its operator, Gordon Garrett, is a Civil War buff.  Bart cites CSA's success 
on the previous frequency, only 2.5 kHz away from WJDM, as a sign that 
"expanded-band MedFERing will indeed be possible, just a little more 
challenging."

    -Pete Smith (Z, K7ZTM; 627 W 1800 North St., Layton, UT 84041) reports Z 
is off until fall.  An improved antenna system is in the works at this time.
    Pete also has seven HP 312 frequency selective voltmeters for sale as a 
lot, at $1000, pick up only.  Some manuals are included.  These make good VLF 
receivers.

    -John Lyman (TAL; Tacoma, WA; Jlyman@wport.com) has a new home for e-mail 
and his Web page.  The latter is http://www.wport.com/~jlyman/index.html .
    "It's nothing fancy right now," he says, "just some construction flags 
and promises of things to come.  But I'm in the process of designing the real 
thing and it should be a doozy." 
    "My LW antenna is down until August first.  We had a new roof put on last 
month, so I had to take it down.  I've decided to move it to a new location 
in the back yard; the spot on the roof was too close to the power lines anyway.
	It's been hot in Tacoma, too, apparently...up to 90 on July 8.  "No one 
around here buys air conditioners--they think they'll never need it."

    -David Jones (NR, AA4NR; Columbus, GA; d.jones160@genie.com) found a way 
to get the text part of World Wide Web pages if all you've got is e-mail 
capability. He says, "webmail@www.ucc.ie doesn't charge money to do it. The 
process is slow and unreliable but the price is right. The text of the  
message to the server should be 'go URL' (without quotes), substituting the 
address of the home page for URL."

    -John R. (Rick) Wright (R; Durant, OK; e-mail wright@sosu.edu) advised 
that he has his LF and ULF beacons back on from time to time again for 
experiments.
    His work these days includes microwave interactive polymers, of all 
things, and their relationship to microwave acoustic effect (MAE).  "You will 
remember a 'radar detector' circuit that I brought up a while back, the one 
that I think senses microwaves based on the MAE.  That is speculation on my 
part, and the detection mode needs to be established.  An acoustic wave would 
vary C, and capacitance changes in a charged capacitor modulate the voltage 
(dV = dCQ); this is the basic idea of a capacitance microphone.  It is easy 
to show that the circuit is sensitive to microphonics simply by tapping the 
capacitor with a fingernail."
    "I've constructed a testbed based upon the detector circuit and a GHz 
range pulsed microwave source in the 50 mW range; I will be making some home 
cooked capacitors with esoteric substances between the plates, and the capaci-
tor variation studies that I have in mind should find out what the main effects 
are in this gadget.   For a reference on this subject you might try reading 
an article in the March 1988 issue of IEEE Spectrum, pages 50-54."

    -Bill Cantrell (TEXAS; e-mail: Cantrell_Bill@macmail1.fwrdc.rtsg.mot.com) 
writes, "Just a quick note to let you know that I got the new tower for the 
TEXAS Beacon up in the air, surprisingly, without injury to our rag-tag tower 
crew.   Antenna current is up another 10%.  The top-hat is not on yet, as I am 
machining some nylon insulators for it to do coil top-loading experiments.  I 
hope to have the top-hat in place by the end of the summer and new chicken wire 
for the ground plane.  (Does anyone know how to solder to chicken wire?)"

    -Greg Greenwood (WB6FZH/KH6; PO Box 1325, Weaverville,  CA 96093;  email:  
greg6fzh@aol.com) updates us on the shield proposal for the new highway H3, 
running near the Omega navigation station on Oahu, Hawaii.  Greg spoke to the 
state Department of Transportation in June, and learned that the Faraday shield 
had been engineered back in 1982, and was a condition of the federal highway 
grant.
    The State of Hawaii is trying to get a waiver, though the materials are 
already bought and the new estimated construction cost is lower than before.
    "The primary concerns for protection are pacemakers, and accidental shock 
to people in the area.  An even bigger concern than pacemakers may be 
defibrillators, which are more sensitive to that kind of RF potential, and 
were the subject of litigation in 1983.  The recent experience during road 
construction is that there were constant nuisance shocks, but no injuries."  
None of the construction vehicles with computerized systems reported any 
problems.
    Completion of the tunnel project was marked by a two day celebration, with 
30,000 people present for hiking and touring. The road is to be opened in 
late 1997.
    "The Coast Guard indicated that they may close the station in favor of GPS 
technology," he notes.  Recent statements were that the Coast Guard would 
discontinue operation after September 30, 1997, but the FAA may want to use 
Omega for aviation purposes a while longer.
    A DOT fact sheet describes the proposed shield as a series of 27 horizontal 
wires, at 3-foot increments, starting at the railings and surrounding the high-
way, from the opening of the tunnel to one mile in the direction of Kaneohe.  
Installation would take five months and cost $600,000.  The Hawaii DOT figures 
it will take another $500,000 to remove it after the Omega station is 
decommissioned.  (Obviously, they underestimate the resourcefulness of copper 
"salvagers."  Leave it unguarded for a week or so, and see how much of it is 
left!- JHD)
    Greg feels the Omega antenna is an integral part of the lush green scenery, 
but acknowledges that sort of thing is in the eye of the beholder.  He may be 
a bit biased because of his enthusiasm for LF and 160 meters.

    -Lyle Koehler (LEK; Aitkin, MN; e-mail: lek@juno.com) was interested in the 
Ramsey FM stereo transmitter review.  He's considering piping music around the 
farm, as well as for signal relaying tests next winter. "I just installed a 
solar panel and some 12-volt battery-powered lights in a building about 100 
feet from the house. There is a root cellar under the building, and the 
temperature in the cellar usually stays above freezing all winter. It should 
be a good location for a remote LF receiver."
    "Bruce and I didn't attempt to put the BK antenna back up last month. It 
may have to wait until Bruce finishes whatever measures are necessary to cope 
with the rising lake level. For the past week or two I haven't heard any 
LowFER signals. LEK has been running almost continuously, although I shut it 
down for a while today as one thundershower after another rolled through the 
area."

    -Don Schimmel, "Communications Confidential" columnist for Popular Communi-
cations, passed along some items of particular interest to MedFERs, from the 
National Travelers Information Radio Exchange.  Canada has approved its first 
Top End commercial station at Collingwood, Ontario, on 1610.  It will operate 
with 1 kW.
    And in Farmington, NM, it is reported that Kenn-Land Broadcasting has been 
given an experimental authorization (?!) to operate on 1610 kHz.

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