I was tuning around this morning at about 0730 Zulu, and I flipped my radio to 5 MHz. I stopped on 5.332, where I heard a strange digital sound, rapidly pulsing. I opened up Digital Master 780, and took a couple of screenshots of what I heard. If you can identify this mode, I would be very interested in finding out what it is, so I can receive and possibly transmit it!

The two squiggley lines are non-related. The vertical lines are the signal as depicted by Digital Master 780′s waterfall display. Click the image to view larger.

I posted this on my Twitter when it came out, but I wanted to re-post it here, to share again. This is a sea water antenna that was designed and can be used in a variety of applications. I thought it was a very neat concept, and I would even like to try building one. It isn’t high on my priority list right now, but it would definitely make for a fun and interesting experiment.

SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific has developed a technology that uses the magnetic induction properties of sodium chloride (salt) in sea water to create a UHF/VHF/HF antenna.

(From http://www.southgatearc.org/news/october2010/sea_water_antenna.htm)

I wanted to share a video with you that was shared with me by a friend (thanks David). It’s discussing fractals, fractal geometry, and how they came to be. It’s about 1 hour long, and was an episode on Nova, on PBS. I would love to discuss these more with someone, so please feel free to contact me or comment on my page to start a discussion!

Nova: Hunting the Hidden Dimension

I’ve been doing some reading on fractal antennas lately, after having disregarded it the first time I came across it some time ago (thanks, David). It’s seeming to intrigue me quite a bit, and so I am contemplating a project to construct some form of fractal antenna for use, perhaps, on UHF/VHF. I will continue to research online and try to find or create a suitable pattern/layout for the elements. If you have any knowledge, experience, or information otherwise about fractal antennas, please leave a comment here!

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7019695.html