Return to KLUBNL.PL main page

rsgb_lf_group
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: LF: The bells, the bells!

To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org
Subject: Re: LF: The bells, the bells!
From: "J. Alan Lowe" <g3xzx@thersgb.net>
Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2006 19:27:11 +0000
Delivery-date: Sat, 07 Jan 2006 19:30:31 +0000
Envelope-to: dave@picks.force9.co.uk
In-reply-to: <43BED4B9.3000204@hifidelity.com>
References: <60.64c0679e.30f00b8e@aol.com> <002001c612f2$24af6d60$045bfea9@d4f8d8> <43BED4B9.3000204@hifidelity.com>
Reply-to: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org
Sender: owner-rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org
User-agent: Turnpike/6.03-U (<yHHxPyF6$MBUi3IYLQsElmHNfp>)
Hi Andy and Steve,

You can listen to a simulation of "The Bells" (HiFix) from the following web page. Click on the "Click Here" link about two thirds of the way down the page. The site describes this type of system in some detail.
http://www.alancordwell.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/nav/hifix/hifixsystdesc.html

73, Alan G3XZX

In message <43BED4B9.3000204@hifidelity.com>, Steve Dove <dsp@hifidelity.com> writes
Hi Andy, et al,

Yeah, "The Bells" were within a few kHz of 1900kHz, although occasionally you could find one higher or lower. There were some down around 1750-ish, too. They were Decca variants, harbour- or estuary-wide in scope, called 'HiFix', and latterly 'Hyperfix'. Same idea, a master pulse, then repeated (3? 4?) slave pulses slightly off frequency. A cluster of them together was indeed melodious. When I first had a decent topband setup here, 20 years ago, I could hear a chain around 1900 as well, probably Baltimore harbour or Philadelphia dockyards.
I too first tasted hambone flesh on topband in the sixties;  the 
unbelievably lethal contraptions hammer-and-nailed together to make 
(what we could only hope was) 10W would give me heart attack if either 
of my kids did the same today.  (Like messing with fireworks  -  it's 
amazing any of us are still alive and fully limbed, really.)  Dad's 
prized Leak hifi amp 'borrowed' as a modulator.  Wires all over  -  it 
was wonderful.  And, yes Alan, working one's first OK on topband was a 
rite of passage; a rosy glow of super-being-dom for days afterwards!
In deepest, darkest Henley-on-Thames, Loran daytime clobbered say 
1930-1970-ish kHz; there were two chains audible simultaneously, hence 
the cyclical 'phasing' sound between them.  Night-time, another bunch 
appeared centred on 1850.  Fancifully we presumed it was an 
American/Canadian chain, but the probable reality was that it was from 
the top end of Scotland or such. Never had the presence of mind to 
record Loran (or The Bells), which considering the radio 'junk' and the 
recording 'junk' cohabited the same space and were to an unpracticed 
eye one-and-the-same 'junk', was a sad oversight.
It would be intriguing to find out where those Loran 'A' sites were. 
And here we are waiting fingers crossed for Loran 'C' to go away. 
Trouble is, what'll we do for easy calibration, then?  And will I have 
the presence of mind to record IT before it goes . . .
       Cheers,

               Steve     G3YDV in a former life


Andy Talbot wrote:

When I used to listen 30 years ago on AM in a wide(ish) bandwidth at =
~1900kHz, it sounded like a bell jangling

--
J. Alan Lowe


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>