VLF pops clicks whistlers growlers - Earth noises

[Learjet]

Anyone experimented with listening to these and building equipment?

This youtube is an excellent example.

Some frequency details here.

My curiosity in LW is sparked.

[Uncle Fester]

Hi Learjet, good to hear from you again

I played around with a laptop using it's soundcard as a VLF receiver/spectrumanalyser some years back using this freeware.


This site should get you started:

[hoe]

good old lw......

remember driving round pommieland listening to atlantic 252 (252khz)....

long way above vlf though.

remember only a few years ago pioneer stereos had long wave if you selected europe as your region in the setup menu. 10hz spacing on am was a bit dodgy though....



List of VLF transmissions
Callsign Frequency Location of transmitter Remarks
- 11.905 kHz Russia (various locations) Alpha-Navigation
- 12.649 kHz Russia (various locations) Alpha-Navigation
- 14.881 kHz Russia (various locations)
- 15.625 kHz - Frequency for horizontal deflection of electron beam of TV sets (PAL)
- 15.734 kHz - Frequency for horizontal deflection of electron beam of TV sets (NTSC)
GBR 15.8 kHz Rugby, England (Regular transmissions ceased April 2003) Many publications listed its frequency as 16 kHz
JXN 16.4 kHz Helgeland (Norway)
SAQ 17.2 kHz Grimeton (Sweden) Only active at special occasions (Alexanderson Day)
- ca. 17.5 kHz ? Twenty second pulses
? 17.8 kHz ? Transmits occasionally Superpulses
RDL/UPD/UFQE/UPP/UPD8 18.1 kHz Russia (various locations)
HWU 18.3 kHz Le Blanc (France) Frequently inactive for longer periods
RKS 18.9 kHz Russia (various locations) Rarely active
GBZ 19.6 kHz Anthorn (Britain) Many operation modes, even Superpulses.
NWC 19.8 kHz Exmouth, Western Australia (AUS) Used for submarine communication, 1 megawatt. I'm sure this isn't used by the yanks.....
ICV 20.27 kHz Tavolara (Italia)
RJH63, RJH66, RJH69, RJH77, RJH99 20.5 kHz Russia (various locations) Time signal transmitter Beta
ICV 20.76 kHz Tavolara (Italia)
HWU 20.9 kHz Le Blanc (France)
RDL 21.1 kHz Russia (various locations) rarely active
HWU 21.75 kHz Le Blanc (France)
GBZ 22.1 kHz Skelton (Britain)
- 22.2 kHz Ebino (Japan)
? 22.3 kHz Russia? Only active on 2nd of each month for a short period between 11:00 and 13:00 (respectively 10:00 and 12:00 in winter), if 2nd of each month is not a Sunday
RJH63, RJH66, RJH69, RJH77, RJH99 23 kHz Russia (various locations) Time signal transmitter Beta
DHO38 23.4 kHz near Rhauderfehn (Germany) submarine communication
NAA 24 kHz Cutler, Maine (USA) Used for submarine communication, at 2 megawatts. [2]

[edit] See also

* Communication with submarines
* OMEGA Navigation System, 1971-1997


LONG WAVE RADIO STATIONS
Frequency Station Name Tx Location TX Power
153 Khz AM Bechar Algeria 1,000 Kilowatts
153 Khz AM Deutschlandfunk Germany 500 Kilowatts
153 Khz AM Bod Romania 1,200 Kilowatts
162 Khz AM France Inter France 2,000 Kilowatts
162 Khz AM Agri Turkey 1,000 Kilowatts
171 Khz AM Nador Medi-1 Morocco 2,000 Kilowatts
171 Khz AM B'shakovo etc Russia 1,200 Kilowatts
177 Khz AM Deutschland Radio Germany 750 Kilowatts
180 Khz AM Polati Turkey 1,200 Kilowatts
183 Khz AM Europe 1 Germany 2,000 Kilowatts
189 Khz AM Caltanissetta Italy 10 Kilowatts
198 Khz AM Droitwich (BBC) United Kingdom 500 Kilowatts
207 Khz AM Munich DLF Germany 500 Kilowatts
207 Khz AM Azilal Morocco 800 Kilowatts
216 Khz AM Roumoules RMC France 1,400 Kilowatts
216 Khz AM Baku Azerbaydzhan 500 Kilowatts
216 Khz AM Radio Monte Carlo Monaco Unknown
225 Khz AM Polish Radio 1 Poland ? Kilowatts
234 Khz AM RTL Luxembourg 2,000 Kilowatts
243 Khz AM D.R. Radio 1 Denmark 300 Kilowatts
252 Khz AM Tipaza Algeria 1,500 Kilowatts
252 Khz AM Atlantic 252 Republic of Ireland 500 Kilowatts
261 Khz AM Burg (R Ropa) Germany 200 Kilowatts
261 Khz AM Taldom Moscow Russia 2,500 Kilowatts put on the foil hat....
270 Khz AM Czech Radio Czech Republic 1,500 Kilowatts

[Learjet]

Hi Nomeat and Hoe, thanks very much for the info.

I'll give spectrum lab a try on the eee pc. It's probably the least noisy.

What did you guys use for an antenna? I've seen everything from many turn ferrite rods, simple whips to loops of wire wound around a wood frame. You know how I like wood.

[trash]

Oh it's been a while since I played with very low frequencies.

If you have an old amp with a phono (high impedence) input you can play ELF.
Take some wire (any wire) and connect to wires to the phono input. One to ground and the other to the input of a single channel. Run the wires outside as far apart as possible and connect them to a stake in the ground.
There is no end to the weird things you'll hear.

[Learjet]

Thanks Trash. Hooked it up to the 80m dipole and pick up lots of powerline hum. I was expecting that though. IT may be quieter at the back of the property... you know, where all the smakes are.

I'm having fun with Spectrum Lab too It's a really neat little program. It's like having a 0-6k spectrum analyser. Most impressed.

[Uncle Fester]

Why only 0-6kHz?
That is only the window size.
Just type i.e. 15000 in the offset frequency box and you are receiving 15-21kHz.

Did you see my cheap and nasty tuned loop in the electronics forum?
How about nailing* some studs together(seeing you like wood) to a square frame of 1x1m and wrapping a 4 meter long 40strand ribbon cable around it and soldering the ends offset by one to create a coil with 40 turns with a very high Q.
Depending on the frequency, the matching capacitor would probably be between 50 and 200nF. So to scan a decent range you could select capacitors using 12 pole rotary switches and an ancient duo or better triple gang tuning capacitor that you can parallel up to 1nF or 1.5nF for fine tuning,
plus your base capacitor for the frequency range that you have to try out. Start with 50nF.

Take the signal out of the centre one or two turns.

A tuned loop of this kind will exponentially increase your chances of picking up something useful and eliminate hum.
BTW, a telly with it's 15.625kHz is perfect to test the loop.




*When it comes to wood, I don't nail, I prefer to screw.

[Learjet]

At the moment I'm just using a small am loop antenna with a small preamp for testing.

Still working out how to fly this software. When I change the offset number, the frequency in the markers change but the spikes and waterfall doesn't.

Just for fun here's a screen cap of a power supply.

[Uncle Fester]

>Options >Audio settings, set the Sample rate to 44100

This will give you 22.05kHz with standard sound cards.

If you have a better quality soundcard you can set the sample rate higher.
A Creative Audigy2 can be set to 96000, giving you frequencies up to 48kHz.

[Learjet]

Wow that did it! 0-22k in one hit. The TV trace is so strong I can pick it up even with the preamp off. Cheap Chinese TV has no shielding!

Thanks Nomeat!

[Learjet]

Just a follow up on what I've been up to... Have made a few ferrite coil antennas and they seem to work quite well for lightning. My best is 130 metres of wire wound on a tube 78cm long, 1900 turns with ferrite rods down the core. This easily beats my 80m dipole for some reason.

Also bought a cheap Chinese USB sound adapter that does 0-24 kHz. Without any preamp I can pick up the 19.8 kHz MSK carrier from the US military at north west cape. Is that the thing they use for submarine communication?

Lots of motor spikes can be seen. I can pick up the neighbours drill, vacuum cleaner, TV, cars and all sorts of junk.

Had a blackout the other morning and with a quiet band heard some lightning "tweeks". With the right amount of lightning I've discovered I can hear them through the powerline hum also.

Looks like I will have to wait for a sunspot peak to hear the more exotic Earth noises like whistlers etc... and find a quiet location without powerlines and all the other carp down on VLF.

[rob916]

When I was a kid, I spent a LOT of time in the childrens hospital.
The one thing that kept me company at all hours of the night was my Dads SW radio, I was intrigued by all the signals and noises, lots of them in a City hospital.
My Dad still has this radio ( he got it for his 21'st)

[trash]

A 50Hz notch or low pass filter will take care of the power line hum.

When you're finished looking at RF, then you might consider changing your antenna for some other sensors. A large magnetic induction loop to listen to the magnetic field is much the same.
Using a couple of loops to construct a differential magnetometer and listening to the output from that.

Find yourself an old piezo electric speaker. Glue the heaviest piece of ballast your can find to the speaker. Then secure it to a jig secured to something solid like bedrock or a building. This will let you listen to vibrations in the ground and earthquakes and tides etc.

Use an IR photo diode and listen to light. IR PIN diodes are much more sensitive and the best thing is a PMT (Photomultiplier Tube).
50Hz hum from electric lights polutes the night sky so the filter is useful there too.

Seal the PMT in a light proof box and you can place various crystals in the box with the PMT and listen to the sounds they make when cosmic rays hit them.

I've built and tested the above examples. there is one I haven't tried yet.
I would like to make it on a large scale, but I think it would work on a tiny scale.
A laser interferometer.
An old laser diode mounted in a tube with a mirror at the other end. A second tube is connected to it at 90 degrees. In it is a IR detector diode and a mirror at the opposite end. In the middle where the tubes cross there is a beam splitter or piece of glass used as a beam splitter.
The tubes are mounted on an insulated jig so that vibrations and distortions don't effect it.

Just a straight laser with an IR diode can be used as an interferometer.
You can hear the wind blow as it scintillates the beam. It sounds like somebody slowly turning an old vinyl record slowly. Whooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrroooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrroooo oooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrp.
A retarded turntable DJ on LSD and pot !

Putting the optical interferometer in a tube stops air currents effecting it.

Back to RF. Another sensor head you can use is an old burgular alarm module or automatic door module. 10GHz or 24GHz. (see the hotwheels radar gun thread). Power gunn diode and connect the mixer diode to the microphone input on the sound card. Point the microwave head out the window and listen to the dopler sounds.

Grab an old 27MHz SSB CB or a 6m SSB ham radio and connect it up and connect it to the long wire antenna. You will see all kinds of weird birdies and streaking whistlers. Look at them cloesly. They're meteor trails.
I suspect (know) their trajectory can be calculated from these signals.
Using two radios, two antennas and the left/right microphone channels might be a way to do it.

The UK used radio interferometry before they used radar to track aircraft in this way.

[ericdog]

Its just amazing what is out there in the EM/RF world. There is no shortage of frequencies you can explore.. I certainly like the ideas trash has listed and a great list of frequencies by hoe..

About the only LF/VLF that I have been involved with was telemetry used to control machinery in (coal) mines years ago. That ran at around 140KHz if I recall correctly (was a long time ago).

[WhiteStarLine]

Hi guys,

Thanks for posting this.

I just loaded Spectrum Lab onto my MSI Wind netbook but I was wondering if there was anything similar for SW signals. I'm interested in astronomical observations where it would be good to know accurate time from broadcasters such as , broadcasting in increments from 2.5MHz to 20MHz.

Could I pickup the 60 kHz signal from my location (ACT) from with the right antenna?

This would save me having to carry a separate SW radio - is this doable as an audible signal or Spectrum Lab graphical display?

[Learjet]

Struth Trash, is there anything you haven't tried? I might give the magnetometer a go sometime, if I can figure out what I'm doing.

Spectrum Lab has 50 Hertz notch filter settings which I sometimes use for the waterfall display. But I can't figure out how to get notched audio out at the moment. If I could feed the notched audio output into an audio program like audacity I could record without the hum and pick up tweeks and other lightning effects clearer without having to wait for blackouts.

I was thinking of getting an SDR-IQ receiver for this sort of thing as well. Well after I get another rust with better car ratio.

Maybe this would suite you better WhiteStar as it covers up to 30 meg. It also has IF inputs so I could plug in the IC-R7000 to use as a tuner if I ever wanted to do radio astronomy.

[trash]

I'm interested in astronomical observations where it would be good to know accurate time from broadcasters such as , broadcasting in increments from 2.5MHz to 20MHz.

WWV is easy to pick up on 5MHz, 10MHz or 15MHz.
You can get all the information on how to decode the timing pips. There's a suprising amount of information carried on that ticking carrier.

One day I hope to hear the robot say, "at the tone, this message will self destruct."

These days everybody is using something a little more precise. The 5MHz clocking signal from GPS satellites.

[ericdog]

One day I hope to hear the robot say, "at the tone, this message will self destruct."

That would almost be as tragic as the closing of the original Australian "VNG" time signal (Lyndhurst VIC) in October '87....

Even though the original VNG only had an accuracy of 1mS, it was good in its 23 odd years of operation on 4.5, 7.5 and 12MHz!

[Learjet]

I remember old VNG. Usually used to hear it on 7.5 meg at the top end of the tuning dial of the TS-120V.

Now I just use internet time sync, mostly just so I can snipe ebay auctions.

The world ain't the same anymore.

[ericdog]

I remember old VNG. Usually used to hear it on 7.5 meg at the top end of the tuning dial of the TS-120V.

Now I just use internet time sync, mostly just so I can snipe ebay auctions.

The world ain't the same anymore.

Yeah, Learjet, thats a bit of nostalgia for you (I used to hear VNG on the old FT101E, and my old valve SW radio back when I was a wee-pup). Things have changed considerably in the last 25 to 35 years! I can't help but enjoy reminiscing the past, when things were simple...

You're not alone on using an accurate time sync for ebay auctions - Many of us did (do) the same thing!