I think my Grandpa worked on the mentioned classified experiments in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s. He was a Naval Academy graduate with a degree in electrical engineering and spent several years on submarines. He then spent several years working at the Pentagon in late 50s and throughout the 60s (my mother was born in Bethesda in 72).
He took those secrets to his grave. I could never get it out of him what he did that was classified. Although I did find several books and research papers in his basement about sonar and radio communications…
Anyways, great article that gave me a bit more insight into what my Grandpa might have been up to.
For someone interested in this topic and happens to pass by, I can highly recommend a visit to Grimeton Radio Station[1], Sweden, which is still operational.
> In the summer of 1917, he was arranging various types of coil antennas at a receiver test site on the Chesapeake Bay when he accidentally dropped one of the antennas into the water. Strangely enough, the radio receiver connected to the antenna continued to provide good reception even as it sank into the bay.
> Therefore, the antenna cables are connected to a deicing system. When in use, it heats the wires by running a 60 Hz electric current through them. The power required to deice one array within a reasonable time is 3 MW or more – considerably higher than the transmitter output power.
I love that they de-ice the antenna array by plugging it into the grid and sending 3 megawatts into the wires
RF Science is fascinating. Now might be a good time to ask; Does anybody have any recommendations on scientific books/papers/articles on the effects of RF spectrum (all frequencies) on Human Biology and Physiology? There is a lot of nonsense/hysteria out there but i would like to know the actual experimental evidence and science.
That's entire unrelated to ELF. The frequencies used by Sharp were in the VHF to UHF bands, and the effect just plain doesn't work at the rock bottom of the spectrum used by ELF and VLF.
This highlights a huge problem that ELF faced: Most people don't understand this stuff at all, and cannot tell the difference. On the other hand, the researchers and Navy were always very reluctant to go into the specifics of the technology, for military secrecy concerns. Beyond the sensible secret keeping, this always results in a much larger vague area where people don't want to talk even though nothing serious would be leaked because the laws are strict and figuring out the exact limits of what's classified is itself fraught.
So if on the other side you got people who are chaining together all the even vaguely EMF-related news and discoveries, and associating it all with a huge military secret project that no-one wants to talk about, and on the other side you got a bunch of people who actually know what's going on but are unwilling to give straight answers to even relatively simple questions because they are scared of accidentally divulging some key details that are classified, lots of people drew the frankly reasonable conclusion that there is something rotten here.
To put it simply, the kind of massive transmitters used by ELF and VLF projects would not be useful for working in the bands where the Frey effect works. The most efficient antennas are half- or quarter-wavelength, which for the Frey effect would be somewhere around 10-20cm (4-8 inches).
Also, ironically for the opposition 5th gen communications networks received, 4th gen stuff operates largely in the relevant bands, but 5th gen moves to higher frequencies.
Both of those of course use a way too high frequency signal for it to be meaningfully received by the Frey effect.
I think my Grandpa worked on the mentioned classified experiments in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s. He was a Naval Academy graduate with a degree in electrical engineering and spent several years on submarines. He then spent several years working at the Pentagon in late 50s and throughout the 60s (my mother was born in Bethesda in 72).
He took those secrets to his grave. I could never get it out of him what he did that was classified. Although I did find several books and research papers in his basement about sonar and radio communications…
Anyways, great article that gave me a bit more insight into what my Grandpa might have been up to.
For someone interested in this topic and happens to pass by, I can highly recommend a visit to Grimeton Radio Station[1], Sweden, which is still operational.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimeton_Radio_Station
> In the summer of 1917, he was arranging various types of coil antennas at a receiver test site on the Chesapeake Bay when he accidentally dropped one of the antennas into the water. Strangely enough, the radio receiver connected to the antenna continued to provide good reception even as it sank into the bay.
is discovery ever intentional :)
"The Most Exciting Phrase in Science Is Not ‘Eureka!’ But ‘That’s Funny’"
(often attributed to Isaac Asimov, but origin is uncertain)
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/03/02/eureka-funny/
(in short, people have found the "Eureka" part in Asimov but not the "that's funny" part)
Fantastic article.
I found a slightly clearer diagram of the Cutler array:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLF_Transmitter_Cutler#Antenna
> Therefore, the antenna cables are connected to a deicing system. When in use, it heats the wires by running a 60 Hz electric current through them. The power required to deice one array within a reasonable time is 3 MW or more – considerably higher than the transmitter output power.
I love that they de-ice the antenna array by plugging it into the grid and sending 3 megawatts into the wires
I didn’t know there was one of these in Australia, the Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Communication_Station_Ha...
One of those topics you randomly step into and cant stop reading. Maybe someone could recommend a book that goes along these lines?
ELF is used as a plot tool in the Nelson DeMille novel "Wild Fire"
More info;
1) Extremely low frequency - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremely_low_frequency
2) Communication with Submarines - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_with_submarines
An important addendum is the subject of "Underwater Acoustic Communication" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_acoustic_communicat...
RF Science is fascinating. Now might be a good time to ask; Does anybody have any recommendations on scientific books/papers/articles on the effects of RF spectrum (all frequencies) on Human Biology and Physiology? There is a lot of nonsense/hysteria out there but i would like to know the actual experimental evidence and science.
"In 1975, Dr. Joseph Sharp proved that correct modulation of microwave energy can result in wireless and receiverless transmission of audible speech."
That's entire unrelated to ELF. The frequencies used by Sharp were in the VHF to UHF bands, and the effect just plain doesn't work at the rock bottom of the spectrum used by ELF and VLF.
This highlights a huge problem that ELF faced: Most people don't understand this stuff at all, and cannot tell the difference. On the other hand, the researchers and Navy were always very reluctant to go into the specifics of the technology, for military secrecy concerns. Beyond the sensible secret keeping, this always results in a much larger vague area where people don't want to talk even though nothing serious would be leaked because the laws are strict and figuring out the exact limits of what's classified is itself fraught.
So if on the other side you got people who are chaining together all the even vaguely EMF-related news and discoveries, and associating it all with a huge military secret project that no-one wants to talk about, and on the other side you got a bunch of people who actually know what's going on but are unwilling to give straight answers to even relatively simple questions because they are scared of accidentally divulging some key details that are classified, lots of people drew the frankly reasonable conclusion that there is something rotten here.
To put it simply, the kind of massive transmitters used by ELF and VLF projects would not be useful for working in the bands where the Frey effect works. The most efficient antennas are half- or quarter-wavelength, which for the Frey effect would be somewhere around 10-20cm (4-8 inches).
Also, ironically for the opposition 5th gen communications networks received, 4th gen stuff operates largely in the relevant bands, but 5th gen moves to higher frequencies.
Both of those of course use a way too high frequency signal for it to be meaningfully received by the Frey effect.