[Milsurplus] Alexanderson alternator on Xmas eve

[Mike Morrow]

>The boys in Grimeton, Sweden, will be heating the ether on Christmas Eve
>with their 200,000 watt sparker. The Alexanderson alternator will be
>tuned up starting at 06:30 UTC December 24th and will make two xmsns at
>08:00 and 08:15 UTC. Adjust accordingly for your local time. Dust off
>the VLF regens and tune to 17.2 kHz.

I think I'll try, using a Bendix R-1134B/WRR-3 (14 to 600 kHz).  

That is the latest Navy VLF/LF/MF receiver to show up in surplus in any quantity.  The all-vacuum tube AN/WRR-3(*) was on board most US Navy vessels from the 1960s until a few years ago as the top-line receiver for that band.  One was often kept tuned to 500 kHz on surface vessels.

Thirty years ago, US submarines used specialized limited-coverage AN/BRR-3 sets (14 - 30 kHz) for their critical VLF communications needs.  They also had one of these wider-coverage AN/WRR-3 sets, even though surfaced submarines weren't required to guard 500 kHz.  I've never seen the AN/BRR-3 in surplus.  It would not be as useful (except to copy SAQ) as the AN/WRR-3, though it would be an interesting relic of the Cold War, just like those AN/WLR-6 receiver modules that show up from time-to-time.  The AN/WLR-6 was a signals intelligence collecting console installed on many US fast attack submarines during the Cold War.

Location and antenna characteristics will be more important than the receiver, I'm sure.  I'll be in Arkansas, using a long wire.  Even using a relatively "modern" VLF receiver, I don't have any real hope of hearing these transmissions by SAQ.  It will be interesting to hear of any successful stateside reception reports.

Mike / KK5F