[GreenKeys] ELF in Canada...

[Richard Knoppow]

     I think CFH must have been used on HF as well. Around here I heard 
CKN in Vancouver on HF. Always very strong.
     BTW, a good source of technical information on MW and LF antennas 
is "Radio Antenna Engineering" Edmund A. LaPort. This has been reprinted 
and is available from Lulu. Laport (not sure of spelling) was chief 
engineer of RCA International Division and was directly involved with 
the construction of the antennas at Sackville N.B. and other high power 
sites for the RCN. While there is a great deal of information on low 
frequency antennas in the literature this is about the only place where 
enough is collected to give one an overview. It is too early to cover 
the monster antennas at Jim Creek, Cutler Me and in Canada but will give 
you a clue about how difficult a problem it is to make them work.

On 7/26/2017 6:42 AM, Kenneth Gartland wrote:
> Hi all!
> 
> Back in the early 60's LF and ELF was very active
> on the East coast of Canada...
> 
> It was located in Newport Corner's, Nova Scotia,
> only a few miles as the crow flies from my QTH
> in Windsor, N.S.
> 
> The call sign was 'CFH'...
> 
> Some of the transmitters were located in Albro Lake
> N.S., but the main LF and ELF antennas/transmitters
> were in Newport...
> 
> This was an incredibly powerful station...
> 
> I was in the RCAF Air Cadet Squadron at the time
> studying for my amateur ticket, and my instructor,
> VE1PP,  had arranged for the radio class for a tour
> thru the main facility...
> 
> It was an adventure never forgotten...
> 
> The Navy guys there never had many visitors
> to this site, and as you can imagine, a very classfied
> place...
> 
> We were treated very well, and shown areas and equipment
> most people wud never see...
> 
> Our Navy Escort fellow took great delight in having
> us hold standard fluorescent tubes, anywhere in the
> room and we cud see the tubes flickering from the
> keying of the transmitter...
> 
> There was an intense amount of RF energy in the room,
> you cud sense its' presence...
> 
> On most of the transmission lines, fluorescent tubes
> were fastened on, and you cud see them keying in step
> with the code being transmitted...
> 
> To this day, I have never seen transmitter tubes so big!
> 
> Outside, the main antenna was "Star" Shaped, supended
> by, I think, 5 towers 550'  high...
> 
> Apparently, the signal(s) from these transmitters
> cud be heard anywhere in the world...
> 
> When I lived in Windsor, the signal strength was so
> strong, it wud literally "Swamp" out most BCB receivers...
> 
> The CFH call sign cud be clearly be heard all over
> the dial...
> 
> Trying to do any serious DX'ing was challenging
> as the interference was continual...
> 
> I generally kept to the higher HF frequencies
> to do meaningful DX...
> 
> Thinking back, this visit to the transmitter facility
> further motivated me to get my ticket...(VE1-HMQ)
> 
> Thanks for listening...
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> Ken
> VE3-HMQ
> i-Telex 61663
> 

-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL