[IRCA] Perseus captures from 1991
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[IRCA] Perseus captures from 1991



I finally got around to going through a box of VHS videotapes from the late '80s / early '90s spectrum capture experiments, as originally developed by Craig Healy (NG1U), and mentioned in this article:
http://chowdanet.com/markc/webpage/WA1ION/vcrdx.pdf

There were about 6 tapes in the box. Two of these, when played into a receiver, had reasonable performance.

One of these was the tape Craig had originally supplied me. This was made at his QTH near Providence, RI. The whole AM band is captured. Sensitivity on the lower half was quite low so it's primarily the local stations such as 630, 790, and 920. Some skip signals can be heard on the upper half of the dial. I still have to review the tape to determine the exact date and times of recording. Items on a news / sports station, possibly with some Google follow-up, will nail down the date. At some point in the recording there should be a time check on one station or another. I looked into the lower shortwave spectrum but noted little in the way of "real" (non-birdie) signals, so no CHU or WWV assistance on the time.

The second tape was one I made at Billerica, MA in April 1991 during the "wee hours" of the morning: 0643-1043 UTC. Because 50 kW WRKO on 680 is only 2.8 miles / 4.5 km from the receiving site, a notch filter for 680 was inserted ahead of the VCR input. Usable sensitivity for the capture came in starting around 800 kHz and up.

One thing that must be kept in mind is that this primitive version of spectrum capture had a rather small dynamic range: only about 30 to 40 dB from a hashy noise floor up to the level of a strong local on the verge of causing distortion and spurs. The tapes, obviously, are not going to produce much in the way of weaker signal DX.

Before the tapes have a chance to deteriorate, I'm porting at least some of the contents over to Perseus files. This also gives a ready method for sharing the experiment results with others. I reset the computer date/time so that the Perseus time-stamping is relatively close to the occurrence of the original recordings.

After I get all this stuff digitized, I'll go over it for any interesting audio clips.

Though the "VCR DX" method became known to the MW DX world about a quarter century ago, it is widely believed that, as far back as the JFK administration, "spook" agencies such as the NSA were able to store substantial RF bandwidths for later review. Broadcast studio grade videotape, or something similar but custom-designed, was used. Converters allowed any chunk of spectrum to be heterodyned to the baseband range (0-3 MHz?) the tapes could accommodate. The late Gordon Nelson (WA1UXQ) seemed aware of it. Maybe some tapes will show up at a Fort Meade, MD fleamarket / yard sale so we can tune around and hear stuff like Belize 834 and Bermuda 1235 once again, as well as Murray-the-K on WINS proclaiming his status as the Fifth Beatle.

Mark Connelly, WA1ION
South Yarmouth, MA

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