[Premium-Rx] vlf performance on premium receivers

[Francesco Ledda]

What about the SSR-19? I have one of those monsters. Mechanically and electrically are  like an expensive Swiss watch! National did a great job!

Best, Francesco K5URG
Sent from my iPad

> On Oct 24, 2026, at 07:09, Nick England via Premium-Rx <premium-rx at mailman.qth.net> wrote:
> 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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