The AM Forum

This might be a starting point.  Doublet probes for generating Zenneck Surface waves. 

Someone ought to try this out in the 160 to 190 KHz band.......or even on 160!

These waves are the basis of Tesla's longitudinal electricity. They are guided waves.  They are not Herzian waves.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20140252865A1/en?inventor=corum

This should provide strong incentive to you 160 meter people.

One of these doublets would be very small compared to the usual antennas.  Best of all, you do not get a square law fall off.......50 or 100 watts would go a long way.

Use an air core made from #12 or #10.  About 30 uH would be a good start. Space about 3 wire diameters.  Do not close wind.  Go out along the axis of the coil from either end with some 1/2 copper pipe.  I would try about 4 feet in either direction initially.  Then, do a 90 degree turn with an elbow connector, and go out about 4 feet horizontally.  Add cylindrical electrodes, maybe 4 inches in diameter, and telescoping so surface area may be adjusted.  I would start with the bottom electrode about 5 feet above the ground.

Find the resonant frequency by dipping the big coil.  Once found, put a sensitive FSM off in the distance and look for a deflection.  The GDO should provide enough juice initially.  Adjust the height of the bottom electrode from ground, and the space between the top and bottom electrodes.  This may take some fiddling. 

If you nail it, go in with a link coupling loop and match to 50 ohms.  Then turn it loose......

Yes, they are real.  We want to generate them on 160 meters, 473 KHz, 160-190 KHz, etc.

The wearable fabric is nifty stuff!

Folks, we live in a waveguide.  Always remember this interesting fact.

http://www.southgatearc.org/news/september2013/gekko_surface_wave_wireless_technology.htm#.Wfn-A01e4dU

WHOA!

This huge!

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a8778/skimming-the-surface-the-return-of-teslas-surface-waves-15322250/ (http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a8778/skimming-the-surface-the-return-of-teslas-surface-waves-15322250/)

To say the very least!

This technology might drive a sort of renaissance on 160 and the VLF bands.  If the FCC allowed licensed amateurs to run about 25 watts on the VLF bands with Zenneck probes, that would be great!

For county and regional work, it would be like having a private phone line.

Here is an interesting pdf for interested parties.

http://emlab.utep.edu/ee5390em21/Lecture%2021%20--%20Surface%20waves.pdf

In optics, they call them evanescent waves.

http://emlab.utep.edu/ee5390em21/Lecture%2021%20--%20Surface%20waves.pdf

In a similar vein, I know of a privately-held early copy of J.C. Maxwell's description & use of scalar waves.

73DG

https://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/products/hfswr/ (https://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/products/hfswr/)

Here is something to pour over.

Look at how small that 6 meter (nominal) doublet probe is.

http://www.texzontechnologies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/TEXZON_Baylor_Corum16.pdf

I've been reading over this stuff... fascinating.

Almost science fiction in how it works.

The thing that remains unclear to me at this point is the shape of the Zenneck wave emission/radiation
in the horizontal plane?? Does it diverge omnidirectionally, or is it of necessity narrow and limited in width?

I'd urge anyone interested in this at all to read [0189] in the patent. About page 40.
It's a jaw dropper, imho.

IF the effect is linearly proportional in distance to wavelength, I estimate that at ~450kHz. one could
cover about 360 miles. So at 225kHz, 720miles... that's pretty significant.

Strange stuff there.

              _-_-

Section [0020] of this patent is nonsensical as it claims that if I turn on an EM source in a wave guide, and thus excite propagating waveguide modes to the left and right of the source, I would not be transmitting energy out to +/- infinity along the axis of the waveguide. A propagating EM wave, irrespective of the medium and geometry it propagates in, carries momentum away from its source...you have to do work to transmit. The authors of the patent believe that this is not so.

I can not speak to this point directly.

But it appears from what I have read that a small % of the energy is spent/used/wasted in the process
of generating and maintaining the basic Zenneck (surface) wave. After that, the claim is that the only time
additional current/power is drawn is if a suitable load/receiver is at some distance.

This is in contrast to the "normal" way that we transmit "radio waves". That's what the graphs are showing...

                         _-_-