Several years ago we revealed in these pages the discovery that radio waves were gradually slowing down. Found during experiments conducted by our own Dr. Elwood P. Lishnus and Dr. Avruell U. Harnishe of the GEARVAKf Scientific Studies Committee, the Harnishe-Lishnus Effect has had a profound influence upon the manufacture and design of amateur radio equipment and other devices that make use of the radio spectrum.

Originally, radio frequency drifing was thought to be a minor problem within receivers and transmitters brought on by unstable heating and cooling of frequency-determining circuits. That theory was abandoned, however, when the slowing of the radio waves forced the electronics industry to change its frequency measurement system from the cycles-per-second to the Hertz standard. New equipment manufactured under the Hertz standard did not drift, whereas old gear made under the cycles-per-second standard continued to drift from set frequencies. Observation of this phenomenon led to the discovery of the Harnishe-Lishnus Effect in 1966.

The early experiments, however, dealt only with frequencies below 10 MHz. Last year, Drs. Harnishe and Lishnus made a series of observations of the slowing of radio waves above 10 MHz and found that they vary at a much different rate than those below 10 MHz.

Surprisingly, they found that the lower frequencies are actually pulling away from the higher frequencies, leaving a gap in the middle. That gap just happens to fall right in the new 30 meter amateur band between 10.109 MHz and 10.115 MHz. The FCC won't let us operate there because there are no frequencies to operate on! Any rig loaded up in the gap would see an infinite SWR and instant destruction. The Harnishe-Lishnus Effect provided early warning and probably saved thousands of dollar of equipment from ruin.


-- GEARVAKf Bulletin Vol. 23, No. 1

The Man in the Maze
QRM from Baboquivari Peak, AZ