I don't normally get excited by antennas but motoring up to this array as
the turn around point of our trip gave me the feeling you get when you look
at one of the biggest and most impressive of anything. 26 1000 foot tall
towers all interconnected with the most fantastic web of wires and bed
spring like arrangements you can imagine. It transmits at 25 Mhz to tell
our nuke subs which cities to vaporize. If there is a war, presumably a
nuke will go off just above it within one or two milliseconds of the ones
that go off over Washington DC. Strange to think that this wild and remote
spot is Ground 0.1.

http://home.maine.rr.com/rlma/Cutler.jpg

We motored right up to the dock where the sign says, "Do not approach within
300 feet." With typical government common sense, the type size is such that
the sign can't be read until you are within 100 feet. No signs of security
or any human presence except for a single van parked next to the
administration building. There is a building with about a dozen very large
diesel engine exhausts sticking out of the roof so I imagine this sucker
pumps out some real power.

There is something in the cruising guide about the transmissions from this
facility also being a prime means of measuring sunspot or solar activity due
to their effect on the ionosphere.

You can see the layout on Google Earth right at the end of our trip. They
don't bother to hide the towers on the chart, unlike the more impressive
structure that used to be in Prospect Harbor. In the curious blank spot on
the chart used to be a circle of towers about a mile in diameter and nearly
as tall as these. Around the top of the towers ran a flat coil of huge
diameter cable. The strands were maybe a foot in diameter and the entire
coil was wider than a highway. I don't know when this was dismantled but I
think it was still there when I went through in the mid 80's. No sign of
the remains or tower foundations visible on Google Earth that I can see.

--
Roger Long

On Sun, 24 Aug 2008 10:25:48 -0400, "Roger Long"
wrote:

I don't normally get excited by antennas but motoring up to this array as
the turn around point of our trip gave me the feeling you get when you look
at one of the biggest and most impressive of anything. 26 1000 foot tall
towers all interconnected with the most fantastic web of wires and bed
spring like arrangements you can imagine. It transmits at 25 Mhz to tell
our nuke subs which cities to vaporize. If there is a war, presumably a
nuke will go off just above it within one or two milliseconds of the ones
that go off over Washington DC. Strange to think that this wild and remote
spot is Ground 0.1.

http://home.maine.rr.com/rlma/Cutler.jpg

How did you like Roque Island? We could see the antennas at Cutler
form there 3 years ago but did not go as close as you did.

"Wayne.B" wrote

How did you like Roque Island? We could see the antennas at Cutler
form there 3 years ago but did not go as close as you did.


Incredible place. It's reputation as one of the the crown jewels of the
coast is well deserved. I saw a good deal of it by kayak in the early 80's
but never realized that the famous beach is actually on the harbor side.
The chart shows sand on the north and I was pretty impressed with that when
I walked on it then, even though it was in steady drizzle. Speaking of
drizzle, there are a few impressive outcrops of rock along Great Head. I
paddled under one to get out of the rain and stuck my paddle up above my
head to hold myself in place against the current. There was a "clink clink"
and I realized that a several hundred pound piece of rock was loose enough
in the overhang to move easily with my paddle. I scooted out of there in a
hurry. We saw the rock fallen on this trip and I though how easily my legs
and kayak end could have been sticking out from under it. Think what this
newsgroup would have been spared We got a picture of it but I haven't
gone through them all yet.

We didn't have the best weather at Roque but stopped for a long walk on the
beach which was a high point of the trip. We also took a picture of the
northernmost inch of sand beach an the U.S. East Coast.

--
Roger Long

You are only off by a factor of about a million. The ultra low frequency
Cutter array transmits around 45 HERTZ but as long as a sub's antenna is
less than about 60' below the surface it can receive the signal. I wonder
what the bit rate is. I don't see how they can transmit more than 2 or 3
characters a second.

My neighbors accused me of trying to receive those signals when I hung up a
160 meter delta loop around the yard but it is only 529 feet around. 45 Hz
requires 22,000 feet. They really would get upset about that! :-)
--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
I don't normally get excited by antennas but motoring up to this array as
the turn around point of our trip gave me the feeling you get when you look
at one of the biggest and most impressive of anything. 26 1000 foot tall
towers all interconnected with the most fantastic web of wires and bed
spring like arrangements you can imagine. It transmits at 25 Mhz to tell
our nuke subs which cities to vaporize. If there is a war, presumably a
nuke will go off just above it within one or two milliseconds of the ones
that go off over Washington DC. Strange to think that this wild and remote
spot is Ground 0.1.

http://home.maine.rr.com/rlma/Cutler.jpg

We motored right up to the dock where the sign says, "Do not approach
within 300 feet." With typical government common sense, the type size is
such that the sign can't be read until you are within 100 feet. No signs
of security or any human presence except for a single van parked next to
the administration building. There is a building with about a dozen very
large diesel engine exhausts sticking out of the roof so I imagine this
sucker pumps out some real power.

There is something in the cruising guide about the transmissions from this
facility also being a prime means of measuring sunspot or solar activity
due to their effect on the ionosphere.

You can see the layout on Google Earth right at the end of our trip. They
don't bother to hide the towers on the chart, unlike the more impressive
structure that used to be in Prospect Harbor. In the curious blank spot
on the chart used to be a circle of towers about a mile in diameter and
nearly as tall as these. Around the top of the towers ran a flat coil of
huge diameter cable. The strands were maybe a foot in diameter and the
entire coil was wider than a highway. I don't know when this was
dismantled but I think it was still there when I went through in the mid
80's. No sign of the remains or tower foundations visible on Google Earth
that I can see.

--
Roger Long

Glenn Ashmore wrote:

You are only off by a factor of about a million. The ultra low frequency
Cutter array transmits around 45 HERTZ but as long as a sub's antenna is
less than about 60' below the surface it can receive the signal. I wonder
what the bit rate is. I don't see how they can transmit more than 2 or 3
characters a second.

My neighbors accused me of trying to receive those signals when I hung up a
160 meter delta loop around the yard but it is only 529 feet around. 45 Hz
requires 22,000 feet. They really would get upset about that! :-)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremely_low_frequency

--

Richard

(remove the X to email)

"Glenn Ashmore" wrote

You are only off by a factor of about a million.

Well, who's counting? Hard not to type that "M" instead of an "H". The
cruising guide said 25 something but it's hardly authoratative.

--
Roger Long

Glenn Ashmore wrote:
You are only off by a factor of about a million. The ultra low frequency
Cutter array transmits around 45 HERTZ but as long as a sub's antenna is
less than about 60' below the surface it can receive the signal. I wonder
what the bit rate is. I don't see how they can transmit more than 2 or 3
characters a second.

My neighbors accused me of trying to receive those signals when I hung up a
160 meter delta loop around the yard but it is only 529 feet around. 45 Hz
requires 22,000 feet. They really would get upset about that! :-)

Does this mean our subs are 22,000 feet long? I knew they were getting
pretty big, but ...

OK, I suppose they can tow a long wire, but still 22000 feet seems a bit
much.

"Roger Long" wrote in
:

I don't normally get excited by antennas but motoring up to this array
as the turn around point of our trip gave me the feeling you get when
you look at one of the biggest and most impressive of anything. 26
1000 foot tall towers all interconnected with the most fantastic web
of wires and bed spring like arrangements you can imagine. It
transmits at 25 Mhz to tell our nuke subs which cities to vaporize.
If there is a war, presumably a nuke will go off just above it within
one or two milliseconds of the ones that go off over Washington DC.
Strange to think that this wild and remote spot is Ground 0.1.

http://home.maine.rr.com/rlma/Cutler.jpg

We motored right up to the dock where the sign says, "Do not approach
within 300 feet." With typical government common sense, the type size
is such that the sign can't be read until you are within 100 feet. No
signs of security or any human presence except for a single van parked
next to the administration building. There is a building with about a
dozen very large diesel engine exhausts sticking out of the roof so I
imagine this sucker pumps out some real power.

There is something in the cruising guide about the transmissions from
this facility also being a prime means of measuring sunspot or solar
activity due to their effect on the ionosphere.

You can see the layout on Google Earth right at the end of our trip.
They don't bother to hide the towers on the chart, unlike the more
impressive structure that used to be in Prospect Harbor. In the
curious blank spot on the chart used to be a circle of towers about a
mile in diameter and nearly as tall as these. Around the top of the
towers ran a flat coil of huge diameter cable. The strands were maybe
a foot in diameter and the entire coil was wider than a highway. I
don't know when this was dismantled but I think it was still there
when I went through in the mid 80's. No sign of the remains or tower
foundations visible on Google Earth that I can see.


Yes, that's NSS. They are one of the major Navy comm centers and
certainly ground zero for several countries' missiles.

How's it feel to be irradiated by one of the most powerful VLF
transmitters on the planet?....(c

I've talked to NSS on HF from our ship in the Med using WW2 AM
transmitters back in the 1960s.

Our ship was GD.

Correction: The remains of the Prospect Harbor antenna are still visible on
Google Earth. I was looking in the wrong place. It's also a lot smaller
than it seemed when I was sitting in a Kayak, only about a quarter mile in
diameter. It was still pretty impressive.

--
Roger Long

"Roger Long" wrote in
:

Correction: The remains of the Prospect Harbor antenna are still
visible on Google Earth. I was looking in the wrong place. It's also
a lot smaller than it seemed when I was sitting in a Kayak, only about
a quarter mile in diameter. It was still pretty impressive.

--
Roger Long





While we're on the subject of low freq antenna arrays, here's the one that
sets your automatic clocks, WWVB, Ft Collins, Colorado on 60 Khz:

http://tf.nist.gov/stations/wwvb.htm

My last visit to the station was when I was in PMEL (Precision Measuring
Equipment Laboratory) school at Lowry AFB, CO, in 1966. We were on a tour
of the, then, National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) labs at Boulder when
one of the NBS guys found out I was a ham radio op. He invited me to come
to WWVL (20 Khz but discontinued in 1972) and WWVB on 60 Khz, still using
the same, but refurbished, antenna array, today.

It's a very interesting loaded antenna on a frequency where the wave is
5000 meters long!

Look around and you'll see the bit rate is 1 bit per second, requiring each
code to take 1 minute to send. That's why it takes hours for your new
radio clock to set itself. It has to wait until it hears the right code
train at 1bps.