"The LF Notebook" (From The LOWDOWN, December, 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 -World Wide Web http://members.aol.com/lwcanews/ A very merry holiday season to all! Noise levels are dropping (but not quite as fast as temperatures), radio waves are in the air, family members are gathering around the tree and in front of the TV...so you can forget about those radio waves until later, when visions of sugar plums are dancing in everybody else's heads. But it's a great time of year, and I hope you'll experience all the best of the holidays. A MIR Possibility. Alas, I didn't know about this in time to inform you last month, but there's a slim chance some readers will receive this issue in time to do something with it. The next test of the Russian space station's ion and electron beam experiments is due in late November, up to December 1. I still don't have the ground track information, but if you have a whistler receiver available, you may want to give it a try anyway. Transmissions over North America will be in two-minute bursts beginning at the following UTC dates and times: On November 30, 0347, 0521, 0651, and 1319; on December 1, 0417 (?), 0553, 0728, and 1222. Transmissions are one-kilohertz radio frequency for 10 seconds, followed by 10 seconds of 10-hertz, and repeating for two minutes. (Thanks to Rick Sealey, Jay Miller, David Jones and Bill Pine.) Tangled in the Web. Please note a change in URL for the Longwave Home Page, above. Actually, "members.aol.com" and the old "users.aol.com" exist on the same physical servers, and are aliases of each other. You can still reach the page at "users," in fact, depending on where you live. Unfortunately, there have been problems with that domain name in the past month or two, and some members are not able to reach it at the old name any more. So, you may find it desirable to change the name in your browser's hotlist or "favorite places" window, as the case may be, to ensure being able to access the Web site whenever you want. Spectrogram for Windows 95. It's not a singing spectrogram, either, although I suppose you could analyze Placido Domingo with it if you really want to do so. It's version 3.1 of R. S. Horne's popular Spectrogram program for PC-compatible computers. This version is 32-bit code for Windows 95 and Windows NT users, and is available on the Longwave BBS and through the Longwave Home Page as gram31.zip. (Gram 2.3 is still the latest for Windows 3.1. It also works with later versions of Windows, but without some of the features possible in 32 bits.) Thanks to Glenn Jolly, who also sent word on magnetometry devices that will be in January's issue. Adios, Omegas Last month you read Greg Greenwood's report here on the anticipated closing of the Hawaii Omega station, and have probably been wondering about the fate of the rest of them. You may also be wondering how long I'll keep up the terrible word play in the headlines for these stories. Well, in the case of Omega, not much longer. This month, Wayne Rankin (Tujunga, CA) sent a copy of the Coast Guard's official announcement that it will terminate its involvement in the entire Omega system on September 30, 1997. The Hawaii site and the one at Lamoure, North Dakota, will be closed, and bilateral agreements with the six partner nations (Argentina, Australia, France, Japan, Liberia and Norway) will be ended. The October 29, 1996, notice says that: "The Omega system primarily serves aviation and weather users. The Department of Transportation recently completed its review of Omega navigation requirements and notified the Coast Guard that most users will complete their conversion to Global Positioning System technology by September 1997." (Ironically, the same document also contains a safety advisory for users of differential GPS service. Some DGPS receivers are not correctly processing error messages sent by the Coast Guard's longwave DGPS stations. The result is vastly larger error than would result from no correction signal at all. If a DGPS station detects a problem with a GPS satellite's correction, then a special "do not use" code is broadcast, having a value of 10485.76 meters. This error value would never be expected in practice... but, apparently, some receivers incorrectly process it as a correction signal. This can produce errors of 15 km, or more than 9 miles! DGPS users are advised to check with their manufacturers to see if their receivers need updating.) Well...since NOAA doesn't feel a need for Omega either, its days are numbered very explicitly now. Weather users needing accurate timing information are already using GPS. The U.K. Meteorological Office at Bracknell, Berkshire, in 1988 replaced their old lightning tracking system based on cathode ray tube direction finders, after almost 50 years of using the same basic technology. The new method is the Arrival Time Difference (ATD) system. Using five receiving posts in the U.K., one on Cyprus, and one in Gibraltar, it is possible to determine lightning strike locations up to 10,000 km away--a good fraction of a hemisphere. Naturally, timing of data coming from these sources has to be very precise. Time synchronization had been provided by Omega until recently, but since 24 hour coverage by GPS satellites is now a reality, the Meteorological Office began converting to GPS in 1995. This fascinating information, from an article in GPS World magazine, was forwarded by member Jack Sippel, of Overland Park, Kansas. We will try to look at it in more detail in a few months, as the DX season winds down and the storm season sets in. Perhaps some members will want to try a moderate-resolution version of the same idea. Several sites, continuously digitizing 8.1 - 11.7 kHz static waveforms, can be compared after the fact (i.e., via disk or modem) to deduce direction and distance. If a broader bandwidth were used, it might even be feasible to determine both the origin and the "landing sites" of whistlers! Meantime, it's a shame to think of all those huge Omega antennas and transmitters being scrapped. Wouldn't it be awfully handy to have at least one 10 kHz standard frequency station that could be received anywhere on the continent with nothing more than a whip antenna and an audio amplifier? December, Longwave History Month? There's something about this time of year when it comes to radio. Autumn brings out the antenna craftsmen and circuit builders from our inner selves, and winter brings out the operator in us. But there's something especially magical about December when it comes to radio. As a youngster, dreams of DX with a homemade one tube reflex-regen receiver danced through my head at this season, while the winter winds of Kansas whistled outside the house. (In reality, my DXing was done with a late- 30's Zenith console model, a Hallicrafters S-38, and later an REL of some vintage or another... but after visits to the old radio books section of the Oswego Public Library, my dreams tended to be filled with miraculous one- and two-tube designs.) I don't intend to wax nostalgic, but December really is a month of radio history. I doubt whether there's a chance of getting any official declaration to that effect. In fact, considering all the moves to re- allocate spectrum to the highest bidder, I'm not convinced many of our leaders know what radio is, let alone have any concept of longwave. But at least we can remember the radio landmarks of December. Given a chance, I tend to go on and on about Marconi's reception of the letter S across the Atlantic in 1901, and the Fessenden voice broadcasts of Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, 1906. Both of these were fundamental- ly longwave events. There was another major radio event on December 11-12, 1921, timed in part to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Marconi's achievement. While this one was not a longwave transmission as such, it's worthy of our attention for a couple of reasons. I'm referring, of course, to the first Transatlantic amateur transmission, often hailed as the first "shortwave Transatlantic test," although at 1350 kilocycles, it didn't quite fall into the 200-meters-and-shorter 1921 definition of short waves, either. But who's going to quibble? It was still a momentous feat, and parallels the efforts of Richard Marris to hear U.S. MedFER signals in England this winter. In addition, the 75th anniversary commemoration will be of interest to the 160 meter enthusiasts among us, for a replica of the original transmitter will operate from 2300 UTC on December 11, through December 15, on 1815 kHz. The FCC apparently isn't nostalgic enough to let them have the middle of the AM broadcast band this time, but did at least assign the call W1BCG. The original station, 1BCG, operated from Greenwich, CT, with a six man crew that included Edwin Armstrong. The December, 1996, QST, features an article on the anniversary, with several fascinating photographs of the transmitting installation. The antenna would have a lot of 160 meter operators drooling today, and probably beats some broadcast antennas I've seen lately. It consisted of a 70-foot vertical radiator with a 100-foot T cage for top loading, and a 30-wire counterpoise. As for the transmitter position, that was he-man radio! A good sized table top was filled with the MOPA-configured transmitter, consisting of a UV-204 oscillator and three 204s in the final, plus tuning coils. The antenna was directly overhead, so feedthroughs passed right through the roof of the shack. On the floor, beside the operator, was a motor-generator set to furnish the 2,000 VDC for the finals. (RF exposure standards? Safety codes? What are they?) Paul Godley, an American sent to Britain expressly for the purpose, finally copied the test message at Androssan, Scotland, at 0300 GMT on the 12th. The media of the day hailed the achievement, and this month's QST contains a good bibliography. Yet another interesting parallel to recent radio achievements can be seen in hindsight. Skeptics, both at the time of Marconi's test and much later, felt conditions were such that he should not have been able to receive the signal in Newfoundland. Yet there's little reason to doubt that he did hear it, even if it was a fluke of propagation. If you look at the 1BCG test, 1350 kc was not optimal for long range skywave, either, except literally in the middle of the night, near the longest night of the year. (The vicinity of 1400 has unique absorption properties, which is why only regional and local stations are assigned around that slot.) Fortunately, it worked out well anyway. Some radio historians speculate, though, how communications might have developed if mankind had not been technologically ready for these tests at the appropriate points in the solar cycle. Now... The link between Marconi, Fessenden, and Transatlantic telegraph station SAQ... that would describe the great Swedish-born engineer, Ernst F. W. Alexanderson (1878-1975). [Download either portrait.gif (7K) or portrait.pcx (12K).] In 1902, newly arrived in America, Alexanderson went to work for General Electric in Schenectady, developing motors and power generating equipment. In those early years of wireless communication, it became clear that only so many spark transmitters could be accomodated. However, given the inefficiencies of practical antennae at long wavelengths, a lot of power was required to cover reasonable distances. Vacuum tubes were under development, but even by the early Twenties, tube transmitter power levels were scarcely into the hundreds of watts. Carbon arcs, with their negative-resistance characteristics, could generate fairly clean carrier waves. However, they were somewhat limited and distinctly dangerous. Apart from producing by-products like soot and carbon monoxide, arcs required alcohol vapor or hydrogen gas to enhance their electrical properties. These substances had an alarming tendency to explode at inconvenient times. When the idea arose in 1904 that an electrical alternator could be developed with suitable pole geometry and high enough RPM to produce radio frequency output, young Alexanderson was put on the project. He succeeded admirably. When Guglielmo Marconi visited the States in 1915, he decided to scrap his own transmitters and equip his stations with the new RF power source, which by then was capable of 200 kW. After World War I, Marconi offered to buy GE's alternator division, raising the possibility of a foreign monopoly on high power transmission. President Wilson interceded. With government prodding, GE created the Radio Corporation of America to maintain U.S. involvement in international communication. Alexanderson found himself heading up projects for both GE and RCA. During this period he designed much of RCA's Long Island center, including the multiband antenna arrays. The Swedish end of the link at Grimeton was also installed in the same era. [Download either alternat.gif (32K) or alternat.pcx (58K).] It later provided vital telegraph links between Europe and America in the Second World War, when Atlantic cables were broken. Television occupied much of Alexanderson's attention at GE in the Twenties, and he continued to work in that field well into the Fifties, along with high voltage transmission and power control circuitry. All in all, he acquired 344 patents and many honors in his 97 years. But what's the link between Ernst Alexanderson and Reginald Fessenden? Actually, it's older than the link with Marconi. Alexanderson's first work with RF alternators, back in 1904, was because the Canadian radio pioneer contacted GE with the unheard-of notion of producing kilowatts of power at the amazing frequency of 100,000 cycles per second. It was Alexanderson's alternator that provided carrier wave for the voice and music broadcast from Brant Rock on Christmas Eve, 1906! Readers interested in a more detailed biography should consult Bengt V. Nilsson's book, Ernst Fredrik Werner Alexanderson, or the Telemuseum home page in Sweden, via the Longwave Home Page library section. Holiday Hardware Actually, I was hoping to highlight more goodies this year, but available space became a problem. Fortunately two that were near the top of my list already have information in print; specifically, the December QST. Our friends at Timewave have a new digital signal processor, model DSP-599zx. At a list price of $379, one would hope for a lot, and ARRL's reviewer feels it delivers. The new box runs at 36.8 MIPS, does 16-bit A/D conversion, is sharp enough to separately isolate the mark and space frequencies of a 170 Hz FSK signal (which it can then demodulate internally, thank you), and has a random-noise filter that can even make a big dent in QRN. Timewave Technology Inc. is located at 2401 Pilot Knob Road, St. Paul, MN 55120. Their Web site at http://www.timewave.com is said to contain the manual and technical data for the processor, so you can get a pretty good idea of its capabilities before ordering. The other product is a digital L/C meter said to be capable of measurements from 0.001 uH (?) to 150 mH, and 0.01 pF to 1.5 uF. Listed prices are $79.95 kit and $99.95 assembled, plus $4 shipping. Contact Almost All Digital Electronics at 1412 Elm St. SE, Auburn, WA 98092. Two other products I wanted to discuss are the S & S Engineering DDS VFO, and a similar unit from Curry Communications. Watch for these next time. On To The Mailbag -Robert Laney (RL, Herndon, VA) has undertaken a massive and much- needed project, the indexing of articles appearing in The LOWDOWN. He has prepared a preliminary index for the calendar year 1995, for which I hope there will be enough room this month. (If not, look for it next time.) Once you've had a chance to see it, he would appreciate receiving your comments and suggestions regarding the format. Down the road, I hope we'll be able to have a cumulative index of all issues, so that we will be able to print both an annual index for the year just past, plus a cumulative one, which might appear in the summer. Robert reports RL is on almost 24 hours a day, except for threat of storms. "During recent trips out on the road with my receiver, I have been disappointed with the signal strength of RL. Two years ago, I was getting out 30 miles or more with a very inefficient antenna and a very basic loading coil a la Ken Cornell's scrapbook. During last season, I replaced the basic coil with a variometer from Ken's book, but could not do better than I had with the more basic setup." "During this period, I built a clamp-on RF current probe that was described by Lyle Koehler in the April 1994 Lowdown. The meter worked like a charm and I had been using the meter to tune the antenna. I had noticed, however, that a field-strength meter that I had nearby and the RF current probe never peaked together. Finally, I put together a 'voltage stick' consisting of neon bulbs in series as described in Ken's book. When the antenna was tuned using the voltage stick, I could get 2 bulbs to light. But, when I tuned to a peak using the RF current probe, the neon bulbs would not light. "I had been attaching the probe between the transmitter and the loading coil as suggested by Lyle rather than on the lead from the loading coil to the antenna. Current readings were always an order of magnitude lower in the latter location. However, after tuning with the voltage stick I tried clamping the current probe on the lead to the antenna from the loading coil and got readings only in the hundredths of an amp, but peak current on the probe agreed with the voltage stick. Experiment and learn, I always say! I also noticed that the voltage regulator on the power supply ran much cooler when the antenna was better tuned. I would like to hear tuning 'war stories' of other beacon operators. "Needless to say, proper tuning helped RL get out a little farther. In addition, I replaced the variometer with a similar one wound with litz wire. Using this set up I was able to light 4 bulbs on the voltage stick rather than 2 with the variometer wound with #30 solid copper wire. I have yet to check the beacon for distance with this." "I have not had a signal report for more than a year (maybe now I know why!) I would appreciate hearing from any member in the Washington DC area if they can receive RL. Speaking of others in the DC area, I have not heard a single Lowfer beacon so far this fall. Good signals like JPH in Riverdale, MD and DCH in Berlin, MD were always received easily here, but so far--nothing." -Brice Anderson (BA, IE) notes an increase in reception this month. "I have been hearing YHO for some weeks. Bill has improved his antenna, and his beacon is more solid in here now. BOB is coming through almost daily, and is hearing BA." "I am hearing KRY, but KRY went off the air when the heavy snow hit the Cleveland, OH, area. I heard that thousands lost power." On November 12, through heavy QRN, Brice heard TH for the first time this season, and contacted Carl on 160 meters to let him know. -Bob Hoffswell (BOB, AA9DH; Mahomet, IL) adds that he has been hearing BA regularly since August, and that Brice's signal is now as good as it was all last winter. Bob is working on a new antenna himself at this time. -Cliff Buttschardt (HDO, K7RR; cbuttsch@slonet.org) journeyed through Arizona in November, meeting Rich Oliver, KC9GQ, from Lowell Observatory, and Tom Clark, W3IWI, at Kitt Peak, both of whom are interested in LowFER activity and/or advance digital communication. In addition, an impromptu gathering was held in Prescott, with Cliff, Howard Myers, W7ILW, and David E. Johnson (formerly of Los Banos, CA) present. He reports, "It seems we now have even more than ordinary interest in the State of Arizona, which is most refreshing!" Cliff is preparing a more detailed account of this venture, so keep watching these pages. The trip was prompted by the AMSAT yearly convention. After leaving Tucson, Cliff was able to copy HDO at the Organ Pipes Monument at mid-day. He says, "It should be a matter of careful listening for the Southwestern area to report copy!" -Mike Staines, our New Hampshire correspondent with a Web page accessible through the Longwave Home Page, now has a new e-mail address. Bluefin.net, was bought out, so the new address is Mike@nh.ultranet.com. He has been copying RGQ (1703) and PX (1639), and sent sound files of his reception that we'll put on the BBS if I can convert them to WAV format. RGQ was the strongest ever, Mike says, while PX was weaker and provided an excuse to play with his Timewave DSP filter. -Donald Moth (MPK, Chittenango, NY) reports MedFER signals are definitely picking up at his QTH. He copied ABC for the first time this year on November 12 at 0405Z, and CSA ar 2327 on Nov. 17. PX is audible nightly now, and RGQ comes in a little less regularly. Don says there have been no reports of his own beacons so far this year, and anticipates some more work on his antenna and radials may be needed. -Pete Smith (Z, K7ZTM; Layton, UT) always uses the most interesting stamps on his letters to this column. He's installing a new antenna for Z now, and hopes to have it on the air around or shortly after the time you receive this issue. His grid locator is DN41fa, if I'm reading it correctly, which puts him in Davis County...no doubt a truly splendid place to live, with a name like that. -David Goncalves (2 Overlook Circle, Milford, MA 01757) got his amateur radio license in October, and is now N1XZB. Congratulations, David. He has changed receivers to a Sangean ATS-808. The European LF broadcasters still come in, but "no GWEN, no beacons, not even TUK, which always came in." Does anyone have experience with the ATS-808 who could suggest to David why that might be the case? Also, does anyone know about a rumor of an abandoned radio/TV tower in the Worcester County, MA, area? He also still has some equipment for sale ("the walls are closing in on me from all this stuff"). An SASE to the address above will bring you a list. -Dave Curry (PLI, Burbank, CA) says fall has been "a true blessing after almost five months of above-90 temperatures, and huge improvements in static and noise." He copies HDO on a 24 hour basis over a 200 mile path, and reports a lot of weekend activity with SB and HDO on CCW and BPSK. There's increased California interest in SSB, too. Dave reports two more experimenters are building his SSB transceiver kit, with plans to join the 184.5 kHz SSB net Saturday mornings at 9 AM. He included literature on the SAM II transverter, which works with 30 Meter ham gear (other bands available on request), all-mode, with RF limiting available to increase voice power in sideband mode. -Dave Riley (AA1A; e-mail: daveaa1a@pcix.com) was one of only two members reporting success hearing any of the special 17.2 kHz commemorative transmission from SAQ. Several tried, but were thwarted by QRN or poor propagation. (In your columnist's case it was "elusive blue-backed whale" syndrome. I'll explain later when: A. we have more space, and B. I don't feel so stupid. That may be a while!) Anyway, Dave reports: "At 0855+ heard CW at about 20 wpm but too much into noise to get more than 2 or 3 letters at a time. At 0900z it seemed to go away, then at 0908z I heard CQ CQ then nothing after that. Hope to hear more from others." -Lyle E Koehler (LEK, MIN; lek@juno.com) was the other member to catch part of the SAQ test: "VLF receiving conditions here in central Minnesota were far from ideal. Although the message from SAQ was repeated several times, the only thing that came through unmistakably was "CQ". But I was happy just to be able to detect the beautiful CW signals from the Alexanderson alternator. Many thanks to the Radio Historical Society of West Sweden and to Ulf Sjoden, SM6CVE, for giving the world this rare opportunity to hear a bit of radio history." He reports MIN is still running in CW mode but will eventually switch to BPSK. "Last night I heard the first LowFER DX of the season (other than OK, who has been readable on and off since August). TH and YHO were both readable a little before midnight. I've also been hearing LowFERs SAM, RM, ART and IMG. On MF, it's still only STLMO. Henry is now using a CCW identifier, but I don't know his exact frequency." -David Jones (NR, AD4NR; Columbus, GA; d.jones160@genie.com) hears RED, YD, JDH, and his own NR (when portable) this fall. He has been experiment- ing with decoding the WWVB time signal, which published information indi- cates will be quadrupled in power next year for benefit of some type of consumer gear. -Jerry Green (GG, K4UBR; Middleburg, FL; k4ubr@worldnet.att.net) reports no luck getting GG back on after the windstorm knocked its antenna down earlier. "I started to rebuild it but then decided I was going to move back to the Panhandle (near Crestview) this fall. I don't know when I will be able to work on it but it will be next year, 1997 Fall at the earliest. I am moving due to my questionable health and will be near my daughter and other family. I visited the Farm several times already and I really am looking forward to living in the country again." "The November issue of the Lowdown was very good and I especially liked the Operator's List. It will be very handy for me because I lose addresses and phone numbers. The VLF STORY is excellent reading. Thank You, Happy Holidays to All." -Henry Lee (HL, KB1PE; Cockeysville, MD) reports "HL is inactive, but I may still build it in the future. I still check in to the "Lowfer" 160m net and have a strong interest in natural radio phenomena, although I've never heard anything other than tweeks and normal 'sferics. I even built a "stereo" ELF receiver using an auto 8-track stereo cartridge player electronics with FET input stages, and an auto antenna for the whip aerial. (A great use for all those bargain-priced 8-track tape players that you can't give away at flea markets or yard sales!)" -Greg Weinfurtner (NS8O, 9411 Kitty Lane, Athens, Oh 45701; weinfurtner @ouvaxa.cats.ohiou.edu) has been experimenting intermittently on 185 kHz, and is open for scheduled contacts at this time. "I had been using GLW, which is my initials. For later beacon runs I have used my Grid square locator. EM89wh ... can closely pinpoint my location, and I am going to start using that one." "I am putting together a new antenna, dedicated to this band, so that should help my signal get out a little better. It will be a 49' aluminum vertical with a loading coil, probably tuned to 185 khz. That is a clear freq here. I got a report back from a station in Kingston, RI, that could just barely make out a signal on 185 khz. Whether it was me or not he wasn't sure.... Now that winter is here, the band should be opening up..." -Don Dawson (VE2UD, Aylmer, QC) has his new UD beacon on intermittently when at his cottage in Wakefield, about 25 miles from home. We'll have some details next month, but he wonders if anyone has experience coping with 80 meter intermod using the SAM-1 transverter? (See address in contact list.) Footnote. Most of the major winter holidays will take place before we meet again. I hope you and your family enjoy the holidays in safety, and with much prosperity for the new year. 73 - - - (P.S.--You can download this year's holiday cartoon as santcard.gif (10K) or santcard.pcx (29K).)