[Premium-Rx] vlf performance on premium receivers

[Terry O'Laughlin]

Probably 25 years ago I was on a VLF kick and owned a WRR-3A, R-389, WJ 
357, WJ 340 and the venerable BC-779LF in overlapping times.  I recall 
enjoying the 357 and 340 most of all.  I lived in the driftless region 
of Wisconsin, a serpentine area of hills and valleys far from any 
sizeable city. My place had iron bearing sandstone under the ridge on 
which my farmhouse stood into which I laborious placed three ground 
rods. Shortly after I moved back to the noisy city for work, I sold all 
but the WRR-3A.

The wide front ends on the 340 and 357 could not handle an urban 
environment. The R-389s wore out my wrists even after cleaning and 
relube of one of the pair I owned (I was young and strong).  The WRR-3A 
could still dig out signals but RTTY wasn't my thing and I sold it as LF 
beacons went dark.

I think if you really want high performance out of a premium RX you'd 
need an excellent low pass filter. When I want to venture low these 
days, I use a pair of LP filters, one around 430 kHz and one around 280 
kHz. I scrapped them out of some weird military thing I picked up at an 
estate sale. Sometimes I put them in series when the noise floor is even 
higher than usual. I use these with my current lineup of WJ-8711-1, 
WJ-8718/MFP, and JRC NRD-525 with decent results down to the VLF RTTY 
signals.

Then there's the issue of receiver hearing itself as you approach 0 kHz.

It would be cool if the manual or actual radio that Watkins-Johnson 
built for the GWEN network would surface. It may have been a prototype. 
I know it existed but I don't know if it went into production or someone 
else won the contract.

73
Terry O'
WB9GVB



On 10/11/2026 11:53 PM, leroy via Premium-Rx wrote:
> Hello All
>
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> I have heard most high end receivers start at around 5 or 10khz but not all
> are created equal. How do they compare to the vlf military receivers such as
> the wrr-3
>
> Opinions please
>
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>   
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> 73's leroy de vk5hl
>
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