[GreenKeys] FSK on WABC

Thu Dec 3 01:29:53 EST 2009

I was on Eleuthera for a year and a half in the early 70's while I was 
working for Western Electric.  The navy had a fixed sonar (SOSUS) ASW 
station which WECo built down near Governor's Harbour, about half way down 
the island.  I've been to Harbour Island a number of times and I have very 
good memories of both Harbour Island and Eleuthera.  I suspect things have 
changed a bit now but I wouldn't mind seeing it again.

Larry
WA5MLH

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <jcoward5452 at aol.com>
To: <die at dieconsulting.com>; <ddillman at igc.org>
Cc: <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 7:09 PM
Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] FSK on WABC

>
> I remember reading on one of the lists about FSK on WABC several years 
> ago. About propagation to the Carribean
> : As a child of maybe 7 or 8,our family took a holiday vacation on a tiny 
> island called Harbour Island in the Bahamas just off the island of 
> Eluthera. This would have been 1959 or 1960.As little tourist kids,my 
> brothers and sisters and I wandered around the tiny town exploring the 
> wonders of impoverishment.Well, on one ocassion we came across a bungalow 
> and the folks gathered outside were listening to a table radio blasting 
> WABC.This was in the morning and it was clear with no fading at all.We 
> were all amazed ( at least the older three of us that actually new WABC 
> since thats how we heard about our "snow days" back then). Asked Dad about 
> it and he explained what he knew about propagation  and how we were in the 
> Bermuda Triangle and strange things happen.I have many vivid recollections 
> of that trip but the most imprinted one is of flying in the co-pilot seat 
> of the Grumman Goose the took us from Nasau to Harbour Island.I remember 
> flying over water so clear that you couldn't se
> e it.The bottom of the sea looked like you were over land.It's no wonder 
> those TBM's were lost.One certainly had to get used to the 
> orientation/dis-orientation of flying over such clear flat shallow seas.
> No,I don't remember any radios on that plane,I had not yet built my Cub 
> Scout crystal radio kit that got me started on this path.
> Jay
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David I. Emery <die at dieconsulting.com>
> To: Richard Dillman <ddillman at igc.org>
> Cc: greenkeys at mailman.qth.net
> Sent: Tue, Dec 1, 2009 8:26 pm
> Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] FSK on WABC
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 01, 2009 at 12:44:23PM -0500, Richard Dillman wrote:
>> One assumes it was for submarine communications but I wonder if anyone
> has any further details.
>    I have read some comments - I believe including some
> eclassified official document references - to a program involving
> SKing of clear channel AM broadcast transmitters in the SE that put
> ood signals into Cuba having been used by the CIA to communicate with
> peratives inside Cuba around the time of the Bay of Pigs fiasco.  I did
> ot see any particular technical details of the actual modulation
> arameters - either analog or digital (eg baud rate and codes used).
>    Apparently some US clear channel AM stations put walloping huge
> ignal into parts of Cuba and someone came up with the idea of taking
> dvantage of it... what they used for receivers in the field was not
> iscussed either, however...
>    I have also seen documents about the RTTY FSK being discussed
> ere - I believe it was intended as a kind of short term quasi
> evelopmental precursor to the GWEN LF ground wave network that was
> mplemented widely across the US by sometime in the late 70 - or 80s and
> ept around until it was mothballed after the  end of the cold war (and
> hen some sites converted into DGPS stations rather than torn down).
>    It was realized that ground wave propagation at LF and BC
> requencies was pretty effective in a disturbed propagation environment
> uch as might exist peri and post nuclear attack and might provide a
> seful backup comms channel.   That certainly was the notion with the
> WEN system (which used a higher data rate in a packet type format on LF
> requencies around 170-190 KHz).
>    I also remember actually noticing the FSKing of a couple of
> owerful local AM stations back in the late 60s and attempting to copy
> t - I have no recollection of being able to recover anything much in
> he clear - it is possible I recovered a RYRY / FOX test once, not sure
> remember any other details - but I definitely was not able to get good
> nough copy to find any regular actual traffic there and I know the
> irst few times I heard it I though I was hearing problems with the
> eceiver stability rather than something real.
>
> -
> Dave Emery N1PRE/AE, die at dieconsulting.com  DIE Consulting, Weston,
> ass 02493 "An empty zombie mind with a forlorn barely readable
> eatherbeaten 'For Rent' sign still vainly flapping outside on the weed
> ncrusted pole - in  celebration of what could have been, but wasn't and
> s not to be now either."
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