Very cool re the RBA and BC453.  I’ve had fun way down at the VLF end of the spectrum with my Wandell and Goltermann AT-611 selective level meter, covers 5 kHz to 18 MHz - essentially  a quad conversion receiver with product detector and 1750 and 400 Hz band pass IF filters.  Neighborhood line noise levels especially at VLF are too high to hear much at the home ststion except NAAs data stream on 24 kHz (bonecrushkng here in New England and sometimes NPM on Oahu on 21.4 kHz.  Also have a working RAK-8 thanks to Larry NE1S which I use to copy CW on 630 meters along with the AR-611.  Fortunately the AT-611, a solid state item from the early 1980s, only draws about 20 watts of AC power.  I take it out to electrically quiet locations such as the Barn Island state boat launch about a mile from the house on the north shore of Little Narragansett Bay, and another one on a salt pond in Charlestown RI where I run it from a small 100 watt 12VDC to 120VAC inverter.  The switching frequency of the inverter is actually above the VLF region and I can hear lots of the VLF data streams including the one from NWC on Northwest  Cape, Western Australia, sometimes even in full daylight at local noontime.  Have copied numerous SAQ Alexanderson Alternator CW transmissions from Grimeton Sweden on 17.2 kHz, the next one will occur on Christmas Eve morning - usually at around 0230 or so Eastern time.  I’ve been meaning to get the RAK out to one of the quiet spots, it should also be able to be run off the little inverter or even a 6 volt battery for the filaments and nominal 105 volts battery for B plus, which it was designed to do in emergency radio rooms on ships.  Got to start eating my wheaties though to get it out to the truck.  I usually use a nominal 200 foot wire  Beverage or a coax Beverage on Ground, even a 75 meter mobile whip works pretty well at a quiet location with the AT-611.  Limiting conditon is usually background thunderstorm static.

I once copied NPM from a quiet inland state park north of here with the AT-611 and my Tacoma
75 meter mobile whip.  As I was driving through the park, signal levels came up 20
dB as a passed under an overhead  de- energized  stretch of power line in the park , driving under and then away from the line confirmed it was apparently coupling NPMs signal into the vertical mobile whip!

Chris B.
AJ1G
Stonington CT

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On Nov 20, 2025, at 07:15, Jeep Platt <[email protected]> wrote:


I use 453s as Q-5er for the BC-348.  My noise level is such that LF and VLF are virtually impossible.  Might try a loop, again. But... truth told, many NDBs are long gone.  I got many SWL cards for the Swan Island HH beacon. 2kw on 407kHz. Decom in 1972.

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From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Mark K3MSB <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2025 3:24:07 PM
To: ARC5 <[email protected]>; Military Radio Collectors Association ([email protected]) <[email protected]>; List Milsurplus <[email protected]>
Subject: [MRCA] Vintage LF/MF Fun with my BC-453B
 
Hi Everyone

For the past 2 years I've been using my RBA receiver for vintage LF/MF fun, and have logged over 200 NDBs each year.   This year I decided to use my BC-453B receiver.   It's been recapped, and all out of tolerance resistors (sans one....) have been replaced.

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Since early November,  I've logged 52 NDBs.   I'm hoping to log 100 this listening season (which runs through March).

73 Mark K3MSB
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