[Premium-Rx] vlf performance on premium receivers

[Nick England]

And there’s the AN/BRR-3. Works well in a really quiet environment, like a
submerged submarine in the middle of the ocean….

14-30 kc CW & FSK
60, 20, 170 cps bandwidth
0.2 uv sensitivity for 0 error FSK
0.02uv sensitivity for CW

Nick England K4NYW
Chapel Hill NC
www.navy-radio.com

On Sat, Oct 24, 2026 at 5:54 AM Terry O'Laughlin via Premium-Rx <
premium-rx at mailman.qth.net> wrote:

> 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
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > 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
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > 73's leroy de vk5hl
> >
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