The AM Forum

Hi!

Some of you guys should be able to pick up the transmission!
 
Transmission on United Nations Day
 
We have the pleasure to announce that SAQ will be on air on United Nations Day, Wednesday 24th October. We start the transmitter about 10:10 UTC, and a message will be sent at 10:30 UTC.

The frequency is 17.2 kHz CW.

See: http://www.alexander.n.se/

0400 here tomorrow. Will be listening.

Bill

The old Rycom SLV will be on here at 0300.

73DG

Are there any on-line receivers/SDRs that can copy down this low in frequency? No receiver with coverage down that low here, would love to hear SAQ sing....

For those of you that do not have VVLF receive access, try on the internet:
          
           URL:   WEBSDR.EWI.UTWENTE.NL:8901/

SDR covers 0kc to 30MC, with memory so you can go quickly to any QRG
within the range; CW, LSB, USB & AM...

Thanks Ralph for the link!  Got it up just in time to copy SAQ on it very loud and clear with a very nice sounding CW note.  They were going about 20 WPM. Only caught the last several minutes, due to having to get a Java applet running to make the site work.  They appear to have gone QRT as of about 1040 UTC.  The chatbox on the U Twente SDR site says that KIE on Oahu, HI is up and running now at 17.8 kHz, not apparent KIE being received in Twente, but someone out at KIE came up on the chat and said they were hearing SAQ on Oahu with their large tuned antenna.  Is KIE the same or another HI VLF facility from the Navy site that was the subject of an ER Mag article a few years back?

I got up this AM to catch the xmission BUT my DSL was down!    It's
been spotty the past few weeks with dropouts, etc and only about
50% access as Verizon is trying to get ALL their customers to convert
to FIOS...  I still want a copper connection to the central office...

Okay did anyone record the event or just a couple minutes of it?

As for the VLF out in KH6, not familiar with it but this is where
the navy communicates with the sub fleet while submerged so
there should be high-power VVLF there as that location is prime
for the pacific area...

When I was stationed at Wheeler AFB (HqsPacSecReg) I lived about
1/2 mile from "Navy-85" where they have/had the BIG Dish used for
Moon Bounce to DC...  Very impressive but only used when the moon
was visible at both ends of the circuit...

 

Hi!

Today, I fired up the radio and tuned in 17.2 kHz, at around 07.10 UTC I heard the first series V V V V V.
Anyway, just before the start of the transmission I had a fresh big cup of strong coffey and sat down in the radioroom. Just before the beginning of the message from SAQ my phone rang, it was an urgent work related matter that had to be taken care of. So, I did not hear the message...
My location is quite close to SAQ, maybe 120 miles or so, hence the signal strength is very good.

Follow this link, and you will find a recording that someone did.
http://sk5sm.se/grimeton/index.html   you will find a link "Lyssna på sändningen här"

If my memory serves me correct, the tone is not as it normally, the frequency is moving a bit.
POSSIBLY the transmitter may not be properly tuned. 

I caught a few snippets of their CW, too much noise for steady reception here in AZ.

73DG

Thank you...

Good copy on the R-389 and NE 700' Beverage. Some QSB.

Those low freqs are amazing.

Is it RF or audio?? LOL

Bill

Hi!

Well, RF or Audio, that is THE question...
I define it as Audio, since I still can hear "the high frequencies" at the age of 45.
For those of you that can not hear 17.2 kHz, just define it as RF!

Anyway, consider that the SAQ station "is quite old" and the stuff that they used the other day is more or less exactly as it was back in the glory days. I have been at the SAQ station when it was put on air, it is a slightly more complex procedure that to switch on a ricebox...    :)

SAQ was put in traffic on the 1st of Dec 1924, but then the frequency was 16.1 kHz, this was soon changed to the current operating frequency 17.2 kHz. Basically all traffic between South and North America went thru SAQ. Around 1938 shortwave transmitters with tubes were put into service, but the old "machine" was still used. During WW II it was used to send messages to subs. After WW II 17.2 was used less frequent, I do not know when they stopped using it. I know that from the start, there were two identical (but mirror image) transmitters, one of them was "removed" during 1960.

And, by the way, it's a RCA transmitter, designed by a Swedish engineer, Ernst Alexanderson.

I find this "old" technology extremely interesting , and the fact that it is still possible to use it makes it even more fascinating.

I knew there had to be some video of the transmitter out there somewhere.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S6gXmElHoI

so what does one use to hear stuff on the low bands below the AMBC band? Besides SDR stuff is there anything commercial?  How about homebrew?

There is a lot of interesting stuff...

WWVB in Ft. Collins, CO on 60 KHZ...Their signal is smoking in here  some 40 miles from their stick. Full scale on the R-389.

All of N America and S America at night.

Those low freqs really propagate, especially if the transmitter is QRO.

My understanding is that RF frequencies at 20 KHz and below are not regulated by the FCC, they are considered audio. So feel free to light 'em up!

My old friend WA8LXJ in Ohio has exploded a number of vacuum variables experimenting down there. A 4x1 into a big tower?

Those low freqs are trapped between the ionosphere layers and earth's surface, which acts as a worldwide waveguide.

Wavelength down there is about 50 to 100 miles.

As far as receivers go, there's a few Frequency Selective voltmeters out there covering the near DC. See Ebay. You can homebrew a converter and there's the venerable Collins R-389. There was also a LF version of the Hammarlund SP-600. Never seen one.

You need good front end selectivity to keep out the local broadcast band stations, but there's thousands of clocks and wristwatches out there locked onto WWVB without using anything fancy.

Below 20 KC you can hear all kinds of interesting stuff, our nuke subs listen down there to high power Navy communications, which can penetrate some depth of the ocean.

When I had good youthful hearing, and lived on my dad's farm in Illinois, I once hooked up a stereo preamp to my 1000' vee beam, cut everything off above with filters, and I could hear all sorts of stuff on CW at the limit of audibility.

Bill

What Bill said!

Here's a good overview of Navy VLF comms from the University of Wisconsin.

http://www.hep.wisc.edu/~prepost/ELF.pdf

Bill

Here's a great longwave website for all things below 500kc

http://lwca.org/ (http://lwca.org/)


and if thats too pedestrian for you here is another for all things below 22kc!


http://www.vlf.it/ (http://www.vlf.it/)


Sam

Okay, here's a bit of info for you want-to-be-lowfers...  

SAQ on 17.2 KC will be active again at 0800Z on December 24, 2012...

Put that on your calender...

That SAQ  tour video was great...cranked up the volume on the computer speakers.  The noise and commotion levels were right up there with lighting up my T-195/GRC-19!  Several other SAQ related video links come up on the screen when you watch the tour that are also very good. 

Excellent copy on the HRO-500/LF-10 combination using the 750' NE Beverage which for some strange reason still shows directivity as I tried the other 9 directions (5 two wire reversibles) with varying, but always weaker, results.

Carl