[Boatanchors] U.S. Navy's fleetwide broadcast, the Fox Schedule information neded

[Glen Zook]

VLF for submarine use (i.e. the TACAMO system) only
became in use during the late 1950s and into the
1960s.  During World War II communications were by the
"normal" frequencies that the rest of the fleet used. 
TACAMO and the other VLF systems allowed
communications with submerged submarines.  That was
not really happening during World War II.

Now, during that period of time, European AM
broadcasts were on much lower frequencies than what we
use in the United States.  If I remember correctly,
many stations were around and even well below 300 KHz.
 300 KHz is the upper end of what is generally
referred to as the "LF" band and that band ends at 30
KHz.

The lower the frequency the harder it is to broadcast
voice because of the bandwidth of the transmission. 
By the time you get down to 30 KHz it is almost
impossible to keep a transmitter in tune if it is
voice modulated due to the fact that the antenna is
well out of resonance at the bandwidth of the AM
modulated signal.

I would suspect, but I definitely do not know for
sure, that what was being called "VLF" during World
War II was what we call "LF" now days.  Many of the
receivers that the Navy used during World War II went
down to at least 200 KHz.  In fact, a lot of the
receivers that were used by the Army and the Army Air
Force also went down to at least 200 KHz.  A good
example of this is the widely used BC-348 series which
has as its lowest band a 200 - 500 KHz range (and it
is pretty sensitive down there as well!).

As such, it would have been very easy for broadcasts
to be made in what we now call the "LF" region.

Glen, K9STH

--- William L Howard <wlhoward@verizon.net> wrote:

Samuel Eliot Morison writes that the Fox Schedule
"consisted of powerful, long-range, very-low-frequency
broadcasts" ("The Battle of the Atlantic," page 103). 
I am 99.9 percent sure that this is wrong, that the
standard broadcast would have been on medium- or
high-frequency, and that VLF was used only for
submarines.  But I would like confirmation of that if possible.

=====
Glen, K9STH

Web sites

http://home.comcast.net/~k9sth
http://home.comcast.net/~zcomco

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