Navy ULF radio system shutting down
 

WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) - With terrorism the new global threat, a network of radio
antennas that let the Navy maintain secure communications with submarines at
sea has become yet another Cold War relic.

On Thursday, the Navy will shut off its extremely low frequency (ELF) radio
transmitters in northern Wisconsin and Michigan, saying the 15-year-old system,
first proposed in the 1960s, is outdated and no longer needed. The Navy now
will use 12 "very low frequency" transmitters located worldwide.



Operated at 44 Hz, and other Ultra Low Frequencies capable of penetrating
seawater.

Wonder if it'll show up as surplus?

At 44Hz the tuned circuits might be the size of railroad car. From
what I gather, the actual antenna was many miles in length and the
emitted RF was in the Mw range... One would have to buy a power
utility station to go on the air,pardon, on salt water.

On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 21:32:35 -0400, (Arthur
Pozner) wrote:

At 44Hz the tuned circuits might be the size of railroad car. From
what I gather, the actual antenna was many miles in length and the
emitted RF was in the Mw range... One would have to buy a power
utility station to go on the air,pardon, on salt water.

yeah I remember reading about it in 'monitoring times'. the input was
something like 2.5 megawatts, output in the mW range...lots of heat
dissipation...
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