ELF video - NOT amateur radio

For a long time, I have been fascinated by VLF/ELF radio communications. 

As you go lower in frequency, radio waves penetrate further through water and rock. For this reason, the military in many countries have explored these frequencies to communicate with deeply submerged submarines, although data rates at ELF are very slow and antennas very long. I know the Russians have a system at 80Hz (it has been copied in the UK), but I am not sure about the USA and China.

Driving again after 13 months

For 13 months I have not been allowed to drive because of my brain bleed. I have had to rely on my wife totally.

Today, I drove to and from the local garden centres at Fordham. This is a round trip of nearly 10 miles. Both the neurosurgeon and my doctor said "yes" and DVLA agreed I could drive again. I informed the insurer too just in case.  I would probably not want to drive too far for a while, but at least I can drive again locally. This is a major step for me. Just a little more independence.

With luck, I hope to be able to resume some amateur radio field experiments quite soon. I am still wobbly on my feet though. It would be good to try some earth-mode tests from this QTH.

Receiving the Russian ZEVS transmissions on 82Hz (yes Hertz!)

See http://www.vlf.it/zevs/zevs.htm .

Quite a few VLF/ELFers attempt to copy the Russian ZEVS transmissions to deeply submerged nuclear subs at around 82Hz, yes, you read right, Hertz. At these frequencies even a few watts ERP penetrate deeply in the sea. The Americans used a similar system called Project Sanguine at around 76Hz , but this has now gone QRT. I think they use green lasers now?

The ZEVS data rate is low and usually there are a couple of transmissions a day. Usually Spectrum Laboratory software is needed for long term stability. Several people have been successful, although I have still to try.

I hope the transmissions are just tests these days!

Radio Nature

A very happy Christmas everyone. One of my presents was the book called "Radio Nature" by Renato Romero which is a very good introduction to the weird and wonderful world of ELF/VLF natural emissions such as whistlers and tweeks. The book, available from the RSGB on-line bookstore, is an excellent read.

See also his excellent webpages at http://www.vlf.it/ .