28-mile dipole?

[N0XJO]

This isn't actually ham radio, but anHere's an interesting article about the military's very low frequency radio station in WI.  They mention a 13-acrea antenna site with 28 miles of overhead wire.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/5009870.html

Anyone have more detail on this?  Sounds interesting.  

[KC8AXJ]

Isn't it amazing how some of these IDIOTS just don't understand that you can't live in a FREE/RELATIVELY PROTECTED country with out having the 'OL BIG STICK.

If they don’t like our Military they should just move to France or Germany.

[K5LXP]

We used this same VLF stuff in the Titan missile program, and where I was stationed at a DEW line post.  1 baud throughput clear, 1/10 baud encrypted, and the antenna worked better if it was buried.  The TX ran a ton of power, can't remember exactly what but it was in the 100's of kW.  Never realized the peaceniks protested those too, though I imagine by now the technology has improved since I was in the USAF and the old stuff can be decommissioned, so it doesn't matter anymore.  The signals actually propagated through, rather than over, the earth.  Pretty hard to disrupt that path.  We listened to several stations, all between 30 and 100kHz.  Time synchronized to a calibrated standard, your clock had to match their clock by a certain tolerance, and you had to factor in propagation delay.  Pretty neat stuff to me, as a new young ham back then.

Mark K5LXP
Albuquerque, NM

[AC7CW]

When I was a kid I worked a Japanese ham with a really big, big signal on 40 cw. He said he was running 10 watts to a long wire so I asked him how long and he said he did not know, it was an abandoned power line that ran past his farm!!