The Navy decided several years ago that the Annapolis transmitter site
was no longer needed. It provided a number of LF broadcasts to the fleet
along with the VLF broadcast. Many remember hearing NSS on all sorts of
HF and LF and VLF freqs in years past. Three 300 foot self supporting
towers were "dropped" at 0800 using explosives at the NSS site. These
towers supported 3 Marconi LF antennas. These towers date back to
around 1918. The transmitters were newer and were sent to WWVB to boost
the power there.
I witnessed the demolition and have pictures and video I hope to convert
to MPEG to put on our website.
The wideband 800 foot LF tower that supported a 4 channel broadcast is
scheduled to be dropped on November 20th and the VLF modified Goliath array
is scheduled to be dropped on the 5th of December. The center tower in the
Goliath array is 1200 feet high and is surrounded by 800 foot towers.
The AMRAD radio club had the good fortune of using these fallow antennas
over the past few months to see what we might learn. The Goliath is
indeed an excellent VLF and LF receiving antenna and I will be working on
an article describing some of our exploits and observations.
Frank Gentges K0BRA
On Sun, 14 Nov 1999, Don Burns wrote:
> On the news a couple of nights ago footage was shown of a couple of towers
> being knocked down in Maryland. Comment was that the towers were very old.
> A large array was visible in the background. Were these towers a part of
> the old NSS array?
>
> Don Burns
> K9AWV
> Fort Lauderdale FL USA
