I work as a conspiracy therapist. Yes I am the dude that listens to your conspiracy theories in a safe and non judgmental environment Last week I had a client who was convinced that the earth was flat. They presented some compelling arguments. They explained the Fermament, the ice walls, how the aeronautical routes are plotted, and the ship on the horizon argument, etc These arguments were so compelling, I am now half convinced. I would now say that the earth is flat…… *_but only on one side_*
I've been a hobby DXer since the 70s. The longevity of these sites is amazing, as is the simplicity of their purpose. I'd venture some of these have been operating for decades, without interruption. They're the lighthouses of the radio spectrum.
I use to test a particular military ADF receiver many years ago for a manufacturing facility and have always been fascinated by low frequency propagation. In my retirement years I'm using a fairly popular SDR receiver with a home brew loop antenna roaming the LF spectrum. It's amazing how many NDB's are still in operation out there.
For those interested in how NDBs are used in aircraft, here is a quick lesson: In the aircraft, there is a receiver called an Automatic Direction Finder or ADF. They have two antennas: a loop and a sense. The loop can determine the Line of Bearing (LOB) to the station AND the reciprocal direction (180 degrees the other way). The sense antenna can determine if the station is left or right (or ahead or behind). Blend both signals together, and the ADF points a needle on compass card TO the NDB. The pilot sees the ADF indicates a Relative Bearing of say 030. He turns the aircraft 30 degrees right, and flies strait to the NDB (this assumes no wind; if there is wind, it gets a bit trickier). To find your current position, just triangulate two LOBs off two different NDBs, draw the LOBs on your chart, and where they intersect, that is your position.... plus or minus depending on distance and propagation.
Good stuff. I remember my grandma had a big antenna "that had something to do with the airport" about 1/4mi (400m) from her home. I was fascinated by it. I would ride my bike up to it and just stare at it. They're at 47.52622728536336, -122.34432124518284. When I was older I looked into it and it wasn't anything fancy, just a rebroadcast site for some ground operations, I believe. There sure was something magic about them when I was a kid, though. I dig the nice dark synth outro music, btw.
In the United States, NDB's with a two letter identifier are part of an instrument approach, for example, to help the pilot recognize passage of a point on the approach. Many such beacons identify with two letters from the airport identifier. Example: Until recently, Hollywood-Burbank airport in Burbank, California had a beacon on 253 KHz with the identifier UR. This beacon was located about 0.5 mile west of the approach end of runway 8 (West of Vineland Avenue, north of the railroad tracks in North Hollywood). In an instrument approach, if you overflew that beacon and still could not see the runway, you must execute a missed approach. A typical 3-letter identifier is PAI on 370 KHz, a beacon on the airport at Whiteman Airpark in Pacoima (Los Angeles), California. The Airman's Information Manual, a government publication, explains the types of NDB's and their uses.
Many thanks for the video which has answered something I remember from my childhood - I used to have a simple hand held radio which I used to surf through the short wave band to discover all manner of exotic transmissions but the thing that stood out was a constant morse code transmission which was clearly one of these stations. It's taken over 40 years to finally find out what it was - most appreciated!!
I know your focus wasn’t on the aircraft side, but I’ll share this anyway. I was a US General Aviation pilot for 20-some years. After getting my Private Pilot license, I went on to pursue the Instrument rating. After my training seemed complete, I was sent for my checkride. At the time, Instrument approaches to landing were divided into Precision and Non-Precision categories. As a general rule, Non-Precision approaches (those without vertical guidance) were considered the more challenging. And among the Non-Precision approaches, the NDB approach was commonly considered one of the more difficult techniques. I never liked them. At all. On the day of my exam, I flew a nearly perfect ride until I failed the NDB approach. The kind examiner gave me a second chance and I failed it again. I was sent home for remedial training with my rather annoyed instructor. I appeared for my second checkride attempt and darn near failed the NDB approach again. I’ve enjoyed Amateur Radio and shortwave listening for decades, but you are not going to find me listening to NDB beacons for fun. … Ever. 😠
So did you ever get your instrument ticket? I use the NDB system all the time. The dash board has advanced so very far. I have an auto pilot in a cessna 206 that rivals the accuracy of the autopilot I flew in a Lear Jet. An NDB approach, especially an arc approach means we do math in our brain to make sure it all comes out together at the end. it is not hard math. keeping your location on the map in your brain is an important part. this is where the new TV screens can help, or overload a guy.
Fun fact: A lot of aviators used their ADF receivers to listen to AM radio stations because they occupy the same frequency range and ADF receivers are able to tune the entire AM broadcast band.
More than that...my flight instructor told me that there are people in Alaska who "homebrewed" their own instrument approaches using their ADF receiver and local broadcast stations.
@@robertstratton6444Not just in Alaska. Apparently these was a home made instrument approach for, um, I think it was Elstree, using (IIRC) the old Capital Radio transmitter. All before my time!
I worked in offshore oil and we had NDBs on antennas around the helidecks. 400W out into an ATU, EIRP was pretty low due to the short antenna. We would receive QSL cards occasionally from all over Europe.
NDBs are used less and less in favor of VORs. Plus, if you really need an NDB, any AM radio station will do - the bands were chosen such that an NDB receiver can pick up regular AM broadcast radio. The guides pilots use to navigational aids lists AM radio stations, their call signs, and their locations the same way NDBs are. In fact, chances are if you see an NDB receiver in an aircraft, it's probably tuned to an AM station because that's what the pilots were listening to.
If humanity survives, we will stop flying for at least 30 years. eFuels need 7 times more renewable energy per liter than the energy it contains because the carbon has to be taken from air. Batteries will definitely not do the job, except for tiny prototypes. Also not 700 bar pressurized H2. These are worse than bombs when exploding.
There is a certain truth to what you say. With the advent of satellite navigation, NDBs were all being decommissioned even to the point where new jet aircraft produced by Boeing and Airbus were not equipped with an ADF. The vulnerability of satellite navigation to jamming, and even more nastily, spoofing, has made that decommissioning plan a bit moot. While NDBs can be deflected by physical and atmospheric effects, they did have a surprisingly generous range that would allow a pilot to be able to derive a reasonable bearing, even in some oceanic scenarios. In the scheme of things, they were cheap and cheerful and easy to maintain. A well trained pilot knew their limitations and adapted their navigation strategies to match.
A bit over 10 years ago, one evening while tuning around random bands on my inherited yeasu frg7700 I found a repeating morse string, knowing nothing of morse or NDBs I wrote it down best I could and googled it, after a small amount of investigation it proved to be an NDB transmitting from just south of Ballarat in Victoria, Australia. One day after work we saddled up and drove an hour over to it and had a wander around the site. It was exciting and interesting. The location is called Field Day Hill. Thank you for such interesting and engaging videos mate, cheers from Australia.
It's been bugging me for a while but one night a couple of years ago I ended up at some random fields somewhere in the Midlands (I think). It was very dark but while driving I saw an outline of something industrial moving fast on the horizon. I decided to go have a closer look. I got to a small chain link compound featuring an approx. 10 m high platform with an exposed spinning directional dish on it. It was spinning probably once every 2 seconds. The dish spanned maybe 3 or 4 metres wide. I remember how eerie it was, so silent too. I can't for the life of me remember where it was. I don't remember it being particularly close to anything, wasn't a very residential area and I don't even remember an airport being close (I could be wrong). I suspect it might have been somewhere between Birmingham and Leeds. I think these spinning RADAR dishes are fairly rare, right? Usually they're positioned at some airbase or airport, but this one was just chilling all by itself. I've searched extensively through navaids lists looking at each location on a map and none look like spinning RADARS or road layouts I remember.
My local NDB is the only thing I can hear on my radio's LW band, but it's cool to listen to. Back when I took flying lessons my instructor showed me how to tune the comnav radio in to NDB's and listen to the morse code over the headphones. From up in the air they come in pretty loud and clear. Also, he showed me that the radio would tune up into the MW band so you could listen to the local sports radio station while flying lol.
Even though the NDB antenna is vertically polarised, for navigation purposes the direction finding receivers have two antennae, a verically polarised receive antenna to detect the E field and a horizontally polarised antenna to detect the H field (magnetic field of the EM wave). The E and H fields are obviously 90° phase shifted from one another so the signals can be phase shifted electronically to produce a null point in the same way as DF systems used to physically rotate the antenna to find the direction of illegal radio transmissions on the roof of WW2 detector wagons. As for aviation navigation, ADF can suffer from coastal refraction where the propogation of the wave crosses from over water to over land and additionally near sunrise and sunset...if anyone's interested? 😊
From a pilot’s perspective, NDBs are horrible. There was one, I am not sure if it is still there, at a small UK airport used primarily for training and if a train happened to pass on a nearby railway line as you were making an approach, you would commonly see the aircraft’s pointer needle violently shoot off towards the train. Beautiful video and the colours and weather match the music perfectly. Thank you Lewis.
Very cool! Reminds me of when did my instrument rating in the mid-90s and had to fly an NDB approach. I remember my examiner was questioning whether I double checked the Morse code identifier, and I said, I already know Morris code by heart. He asked if I was a ham, and I said yes. He then proceeded to tell me he was one too and we had a great rest of the flight! Needless to say, I passed!
When a teenager, I had an old valve radio that brought in some beacons right at the bottom end of the long wave band. They identified with three morse letters. I wonder if these were marine beacons rather than NDBs?
Great video, pictures, interesting explanations and nice music. You gave me the will to buy an RTL-SDR USB key and start playing around and listening to things I was not even aware of, and I only watched 3 of your videos yet. Despite knowing nothing, I already enjoy this. If I'll hear some morse code, this evening or in 10 years, I will remember this video!
You'll need something better than an RTL-SDR to get down to these frequencies. I saved up to get an Airspy Discovery and it's the best, in my price range, that I've found for the lower frequencies. Having a big antenna and a good ground are also really important. I bind together cheap 8ft bamboo poles from a garden centre and stick copper wire to them. the wire doesn't have to be too fancy. I use 1mm enamelled wire, but 0.5mm works well too. My tallest is around 10m, leaning on a leylandii tree. I use a cheap electrical earth rod close to the base of the antenna. Then I use cheap TV coax to the receiver. Best of luck!
@@apc108 thanks for the advice, appreciated. I'll look forward buying this airspy device if I want to get down. I still need to figure out many things about RF and don't feel constrained by my cheap USB receiver yet :)
Once again, brilliant, Lewis! I So wonderfully covered. Since living in the US, I've lamented the 'demise' of LW broadcasting. Not that it was ever really huge here, but now there's almost nothing. The irony is that I now live in a remote area of New England with a gleefully low QRM levels, yet on some of those lower freqs there's little RX (or DX) potential, at least most of the time. Cheers!
My high school (50 years ago) had a shed sized transmitter bld and a small antenna structure, no name nothing but a warning about tresspassing and high voltage, we lived in a heavilily military area with all manner of military and cold war communications sites, as well as an air force base, just as you mentioned at some poimt the transmitter site disappeared no doubt replaced or obsoleted by newer technology.
As a 7/8year old I would listen to the LIC beacon on the LW band (Litchfield). Always facinated by it's eerie sound, but having no idea what it was for years.
I actually have an old NDB transmitter and tuner here. The plan was to use it as a beacon for the 630 meter amateur band. It was a simple conversion however the signal being AM CW exceeds the allocated bandwidth of the 630 meter band. Back to the drawing board....... Thanks for sharing !
I first heard my local airport's NDB in the mid 90s on a Wards Airline portable that I picked up at the local flea market. It was a D-Cell hog so I powered with a 12v SLA. For a few years it was a mystery to me. I initially assumed it had something to do with communications from a nearby military base. I finally figured out it was about 2.5 miles from home when I drove by the transmitter site, which was also a compelling mystery to me, while listening to an AM broadcast just 2KHz up from it's 2nd harmonic. I logged 8 or 10 on the Wards and later added maybe 10 or 15 more with a Drake R8. I might still have the log sheet somewhere. I think the most amusing thing was that beneath the ID of my local NDB I could hear another with the same power, 25w, about 250 miles (400km) away. These days I don't hear any.
The nearby beacons are received by ground wave - which can stretch for a fair distance at these LF frequencies. Ground wave propagation is very much proportional to transmitter output power, unlike a signal propagated by ionospheric skip. Curiously, here in south-east London/Bermondsey, the only NDB that I can receive on an indoor whip aerial (and outside on my car's short, base loaded whip) is the Rickmansworth NDB c/sign CHT, 277kHz, 25 watts at a range of 32km. I really don't know why the NDBs at Gatwick and City airports as well as general aviation airstrips like Headcorn, Kent are inaudible here at home when they really should be heard. CHT is a strong signal here during darkness hours [*] and even, weakly during the day. I had wondered whether the terrain offered a line-of-sight pathway but this doesn't seem to be the case. What could explain this? [*] This night effect is due to reduced atmospheric ionisation (and hence background noise) and nothing to do with skip propagation. However other signals will skip, leading to much more interference from SW/HF distant station overloading the receiver front-end as well as 'image' reception.
I might have watched around 10 videos from this channel over the last few months, and just realized, that I had yet to subscribe and ring the bell; which I then proceeded to do.
Hi. I bought a thunderpole tx hand held and every day around 2pm on channel 6 RD am I hear Americans talking they can’t hear me but I hear them I’m in London and I’m using the rubber duck that came with it but I bought a mag mount and I have it stuck on my radiator right by my window I also hear other foreign language on other am channel’s. I would love to see it all take of again like it was in the 70s and 80s. Anyway love your channel bro keep up the good work. Take care. Garty.
Great as usual Lewis. As an avid NDB DXer this was fun. Its disheartening to hear even stalwarts I heard often now off the air, but alas technology moves on. At least I have my logs and recordings to remember.
For the aircraft side the ADF system (Automatic direction finder). The pilot selects the frequency of the station and the ADF equipment figures out how far away you are and if you are going towards or away from the signal.
I remember picking one up on the MW in 1979, it used to spell out LAM. I was 12 at the time and didn't know what it was until I wrote to the BBC to find out. I received a letter telling me what it was and that it was for aircraft approaching Heathrow.. I think. I have the letter somewhere where it also mentioned the frequency, which I can't remember. I'll have to try and find it. I still remember the morse code in my head to this day.
I remember, when I was growing up in the 1960s, my local airport had an NDB that I could receive on my AM radio. It was at the very high end of the band, as I recall, like around 1730 kHz or thereabouts. I lived in (and have returned to) Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, and back 50 to 60 years ago, the local airport was called Bloomington Municipal International (I think), with the radio beacon call sign of BMI. What I heard was a repeating Morse code for B M I , followed by a male voice saying "Bloomington, BMI." I haven't heard it since the 1970s, but by the same token, I only recently moved back here, and in this day and age I don't actually have an AM radio receiver at my disposal to check it out for current status. I love your content, BTW!
It looks like it's not there anymore. The only beacon I could find in the immediate vicinity of BMI is an outer marker locator on the runway 20 ILS approach. Its frequency is 334 kHz and its identifier is LH.
I've heard a fair few of these beacons at nite when QRM allows the band between 280 and 415 khz is full of them. There used to be a maritime beacon on portland bill lighthouse long gone now but I remember hearing its auto ATU struggling to keep it tuned as the fog came in
some can be herd in the US . just a simple system. bacons are used in HAM radio to check band conditions . same CW with just a call sign. low power transmission. great video of some of the transmitter cites. even at low power the RF voltage can be quite high and can be deadly. why the signs . less than a 1/4 wave. the antenna impendence goes up. and so does the RF voltage. 73's
NDBs - we had a few of them receivable in the mid 70s. One would spell out in Morse "BBL" and teenage me would wonder what it meant. I think it wad from Boundary Bay airport.
Aircraft ADF Receivers were the first products I worked on at Collins Radio. ADF-650A and ADF-60A/B. More recently (last 20 years or so) the NAV-4000 line included the ADF function. There was an ADF-4000, but few were ever produced. The '4000 units included Differential GPS data output. I doubt very many aircraft actually used this. Some units included up in the Marine MF band for US Coast Guard aircraft that might search on 2182 kHz. Those are really rare. The antennas were crossed loop designs specific to the radio. Some US coastal ports included an NDB transmitter with differential GPS, but I think they are all gone now too. Alaska was the last hold out. Port Canaveral was the last I heard with ASCII DGPS data on the NDB signal. Airline pilots told me the only thing they used it for was listening to ball games on AM Radio. Thank you for documenting the radio world.
At 2:46, the BOT translation is correct for the sound played. But, the screen has _. (N) captioned where only _ (T) is heard. Still, listening to soft faint code with a faraway hiss behind is very relaxing.
My local flamethrower locater-outer marker FN was silenced just a couple of years ago after occupying 400 kHz and being in the way of DXers all over the Western US. The structure still stands, unmodified, like they could turn it on again. The ground underneath it must be so conductive!
Urrrgh, this reminded me of my ADF training when I trained to get my fixed wing PPL. VOR/DME is more straightforward because it offers references for heading and distance. ADF only tells you a direction and you have to figure out the other references on the fly. Easy now but took a while go get my head around. Its useless if a storm cell is nearby ADF are attracted to them!!
I can hear these here in Victoria Australia. Very very weak but they are there. All my receivers are deaf to them expect my icr9000 it can just hear them. Even the ic7300 can’t hear them.
So remember tuning into these when I was a kid Had to go to the library to find out what they were, or ask a local ham ofr aircraft enthusiast, X rooby
You have it backwards. The common IF frequencies (455, 465 kz, etc) are religiously avoided by the beacon stations (and the frequency assigners) due to the likely hood of interference.
For an aviator an ndb is very “directional” - the arrow on the ADF points at it. Sometimes distant lightnings make the arrow deviate momentarily. I’m yet to hear an ndb transmitting ATIS or volmet (doesn’t exist here in France).
I don’t think any other invention has had such a profound impact on civilization ‘ever’ in history. Maybe the 3-volt transistor making microelectronics possible. Thanks Lewis. Tom.
New sub, but been watching for ages. Strangely hypnotic content. Off topic, but if anyone knows, it will be this audience. I've had several inexpensive DAB radios, and noticed that if I touch the ariel whilst they are I'm operation, it feels like an electric shock, or current, or vibration. They have all done this. Can't find an explanation despite Google g it several times. If anyone knows would welcome the information. Many thanks
There's no difference (as far as the RF stage is concerned) between a VHF DAB+ and a VHF FM radio. So there's no sensible reason, except that the power-supply in a lot of cheap radios can have a rather high leakage current (which can cause shocks). Especially Eu and Jap radios when used in the USA without a properly Earthed power outlet. Note also that there is a different DRM on MW/SW v/s VHF, so is difficult to know which you refer to.
When I was a kid I used to pick up some of these commercial beacons on shortwave, they would send a CQ once followed by a 3 letter callsign and then the letter K (finished) and repeat about every 5 seconds. They had strong signals though.
Probably maritime station markers. There are still a few around. Usually military though there is an old and very persistent commercial maritime costal station on HF from South Korea. You’ll hear it all over and I have heard it clearly here in Aus in somewhere north of 22MHz. Surprisingly there has been some reported traffic on CW though I have never heard any myself
Hearing these is more of a ground wave thing than sky wave. There's a facebook group dedicated to Long Wave DXing, mostly focused around both the still extant LW radio stations in Europe but also for NDBs which is the only thing people in North America can generally pick up on Long Wave. Unfortunately it looks like that's going to be the case in Europe within a few years.
When I need to hear an NDB in an airplane, I really need to hear an NDB. I have never been able to hear or track one as you show. Usually about 35 to 50 miles is when I can expect to receive them in the airplane. So many pilots have grown to solely rely upon GPS, and I think they are making a big mistake. We have lost LORAN. I still think turning LORAN off was a very bad idea, when it comes to jamming. The very very short wave navigation systems we use are so vulnerable to sabotage. I still use the NDB as a navigational resource in my daily life, thankyou for your timely article.
Can anyone help me with a radio issue? Ever since the Bilsdale mast fire, Harrogate has really rubbish radio signal. I did wonder if my car at the time just had a rubbish aerial, despite the car being brand new, but I’ve since changed vehicles and yet still - despite the mast being replaced, every time I drive across town, almost every station drops out every few seconds. I thought it was a DAB issue but the same happens on regular FM. Is there anything I can do?
Both DAB+ and normal VHF FM signals will suffer dropouts unless you are in a strong signal area. Before AM MW was closed down, it gave a far better signal in difficult areas. You could try fitting a better FM antenna, eg longer whip, active pre-amp, gutter mount. Most cars these days try to use a crappy antenna which doubles as the heating element in the window glass..
Another thing the airplane ADF can offer is an rather poor Lighting detector. Tune it for a rather high offering. and it will point toward a strike. drive away from the direction the needle points. So far I am still alive, so I guess it works reasonably well.
A question for someone way smarter than me regarding the removal of these backup localized systems. What happens to global trade and navigation when if China, seeing the US is sending military aid and support to Ukraine & Israel, decides it really wants to invade Taiwan and 'untie China under the one China policy'. I'm venturing a guess that one of Winnie The Pooh will first acts of aggression will be to strike satellite based NATO Link 16 command & control systems. The system they would most likely use would be airplane launched anti-sat missiles and a strike like that would cause a huge debris field in space that could take days, weeks, months or even years to clear. Satellites aren't armored so they can't fly through such debris so, good bye GPS. I'd just like to know what the plan is in case some nation wants to start attacking mil-C2 systems and we have no backups because it saved a few thousand from the budget.
When I was a kid i heard morse code through a old Hi-Fi stereo (i cant remember what tuner it was using but it was a very old unit) the morse code was -.. .. -.-. growing up i never knew it was morse code but always wondered what it was. I later learned it was D I C. Given that they use 3 letters could this have been what i heard? if not is there another explenation (maybe other than someone trying to transmit profanity). Would be great to hear back about this if you could provide any information.
At 00:18 in this video: I have seen an online image of an electrical control box with a warning sign on it. I do not know if the sign was REAL or PHOTOSHOPPED, but it said something like: *"NOT ONLY WILL THIS BOX KILL YOU, IT WILL HURT THE ENTIRE TIME YOU ARE DYING."* 🤭
Remember if the Earth was flat a cat would have pushed everything off by now!
Flat earth thread here
It already is 😂 Have you asked yourself why NASA suddenly claim Musk is putting holes in the sky 😳 😂
Not A Space Agency
Yeah, well if the earth wasn't flat, wouldn't.....Oh, never mind.
I work as a conspiracy therapist.
Yes I am the dude that listens to your conspiracy theories in a safe and non judgmental environment
Last week I had a client who was convinced that the earth was flat. They presented some compelling arguments. They explained the Fermament, the ice walls, how the aeronautical routes are plotted, and the ship on the horizon argument, etc
These arguments were so compelling, I am now half convinced.
I would now say that the earth is flat…… *_but only on one side_*
I've been a hobby DXer since the 70s. The longevity of these sites is amazing, as is the simplicity of their purpose. I'd venture some of these have been operating for decades, without interruption. They're the lighthouses of the radio spectrum.
Amazing! I love the sound of the morse in amongst the noise with the narrow filter!
Thanks rog
And could go well mixed with this awesome music.
I use to test a particular military ADF receiver many years ago for a manufacturing facility and have always been fascinated by low frequency propagation. In my retirement years I'm using a fairly popular SDR receiver with a home brew loop antenna roaming the LF spectrum. It's amazing how many NDB's are still in operation out there.
For those interested in how NDBs are used in aircraft, here is a quick lesson:
In the aircraft, there is a receiver called an Automatic Direction Finder or ADF. They have two antennas: a loop and a sense. The loop can determine the Line of Bearing (LOB) to the station AND the reciprocal direction (180 degrees the other way). The sense antenna can determine if the station is left or right (or ahead or behind). Blend both signals together, and the ADF points a needle on compass card TO the NDB. The pilot sees the ADF indicates a Relative Bearing of say 030. He turns the aircraft 30 degrees right, and flies strait to the NDB (this assumes no wind; if there is wind, it gets a bit trickier).
To find your current position, just triangulate two LOBs off two different NDBs, draw the LOBs on your chart, and where they intersect, that is your position.... plus or minus depending on distance and propagation.
Good stuff. I remember my grandma had a big antenna "that had something to do with the airport" about 1/4mi (400m) from her home. I was fascinated by it. I would ride my bike up to it and just stare at it. They're at 47.52622728536336, -122.34432124518284. When I was older I looked into it and it wasn't anything fancy, just a rebroadcast site for some ground operations, I believe. There sure was something magic about them when I was a kid, though.
I dig the nice dark synth outro music, btw.
In the United States, NDB's with a two letter identifier are part of an instrument approach, for example, to help the pilot recognize passage of a point on the approach. Many such beacons identify with two letters from the airport identifier. Example: Until recently, Hollywood-Burbank airport in Burbank, California had a beacon on 253 KHz with the identifier UR. This beacon was
located about 0.5 mile west of the approach end of runway 8 (West of Vineland Avenue, north of the railroad tracks in North Hollywood). In an instrument approach, if you overflew that beacon and still could not see the runway, you must execute a missed approach. A typical 3-letter identifier is PAI on 370 KHz, a beacon on the airport at Whiteman Airpark in Pacoima (Los Angeles),
California. The Airman's Information Manual, a government publication, explains the types of NDB's and their uses.
Many thanks for the video which has answered something I remember from my childhood - I used to have a simple hand held radio which I used to surf through the short wave band to discover all manner of exotic transmissions but the thing that stood out was a constant morse code transmission which was clearly one of these stations. It's taken over 40 years to finally find out what it was - most appreciated!!
I know your focus wasn’t on the aircraft side, but I’ll share this anyway. I was a US General Aviation pilot for 20-some years. After getting my Private Pilot license, I went on to pursue the Instrument rating. After my training seemed complete, I was sent for my checkride. At the time, Instrument approaches to landing were divided into Precision and Non-Precision categories. As a general rule, Non-Precision approaches (those without vertical guidance) were considered the more challenging. And among the Non-Precision approaches, the NDB approach was commonly considered one of the more difficult techniques. I never liked them. At all. On the day of my exam, I flew a nearly perfect ride until I failed the NDB approach. The kind examiner gave me a second chance and I failed it again. I was sent home for remedial training with my rather annoyed instructor. I appeared for my second checkride attempt and darn near failed the NDB approach again. I’ve enjoyed Amateur Radio and shortwave listening for decades, but you are not going to find me listening to NDB beacons for fun. … Ever. 😠
So did you ever get your instrument ticket? I use the NDB system all the time. The dash board has advanced so very far. I have an auto pilot in a cessna 206 that rivals the accuracy of the autopilot I flew in a Lear Jet. An NDB approach, especially an arc approach means we do math in our brain to make sure it all comes out together at the end. it is not hard math. keeping your location on the map in your brain is an important part. this is where the new TV screens can help, or overload a guy.
It's not" HR," but "HW" Hannover.
Fun fact: A lot of aviators used their ADF receivers to listen to AM radio stations because they occupy the same frequency range and ADF receivers are able to tune the entire AM broadcast band.
I used to listen to Atlantic 252 when that was going.
More than that...my flight instructor told me that there are people in Alaska who "homebrewed" their own instrument approaches using their ADF receiver and local broadcast stations.
@@robertstratton6444Not just in Alaska. Apparently these was a home made instrument approach for, um, I think it was Elstree, using (IIRC) the old Capital Radio transmitter. All before my time!
@@paulsengupta971me too! You still get to listen to the BBC stations on the ADF as well as the usual sports channel!.
@@elguapo1507 Usually pilots quote listening to Test Match Special on Radio 4...
I worked in offshore oil and we had NDBs on antennas around the helidecks. 400W out into an ATU, EIRP was pretty low due to the short antenna. We would receive QSL cards occasionally from all over Europe.
NDBs are used less and less in favor of VORs. Plus, if you really need an NDB, any AM radio station will do - the bands were chosen such that an NDB receiver can pick up regular AM broadcast radio. The guides pilots use to navigational aids lists AM radio stations, their call signs, and their locations the same way NDBs are. In fact, chances are if you see an NDB receiver in an aircraft, it's probably tuned to an AM station because that's what the pilots were listening to.
i believe that getting rid of all this old tech is a huge mistake. simpler is often much better and reliable.
If humanity survives, we will stop flying for at least 30 years. eFuels need 7 times more renewable energy per liter than the energy it contains because the carbon has to be taken from air. Batteries will definitely not do the job, except for tiny prototypes. Also not 700 bar pressurized H2. These are worse than bombs when exploding.
Are you driving a Model T Ford automobile?
There is a certain truth to what you say. With the advent of satellite navigation, NDBs were all being decommissioned even to the point where new jet aircraft produced by Boeing and Airbus were not equipped with an ADF. The vulnerability of satellite navigation to jamming, and even more nastily, spoofing, has made that decommissioning plan a bit moot. While NDBs can be deflected by physical and atmospheric effects, they did have a surprisingly generous range that would allow a pilot to be able to derive a reasonable bearing, even in some oceanic scenarios. In the scheme of things, they were cheap and cheerful and easy to maintain. A well trained pilot knew their limitations and adapted their navigation strategies to match.
@@Peter_S_ shut up
A bit over 10 years ago, one evening while tuning around random bands on my inherited yeasu frg7700 I found a repeating morse string, knowing nothing of morse or NDBs I wrote it down best I could and googled it, after a small amount of investigation it proved to be an NDB transmitting from just south of Ballarat in Victoria, Australia.
One day after work we saddled up and drove an hour over to it and had a wander around the site. It was exciting and interesting.
The location is called Field Day Hill.
Thank you for such interesting and engaging videos mate, cheers from Australia.
Keep up these vids RM ...still waiting for a UVB76 remix of Drum And Bass
It's been bugging me for a while but one night a couple of years ago I ended up at some random fields somewhere in the Midlands (I think). It was very dark but while driving I saw an outline of something industrial moving fast on the horizon. I decided to go have a closer look. I got to a small chain link compound featuring an approx. 10 m high platform with an exposed spinning directional dish on it. It was spinning probably once every 2 seconds. The dish spanned maybe 3 or 4 metres wide. I remember how eerie it was, so silent too. I can't for the life of me remember where it was. I don't remember it being particularly close to anything, wasn't a very residential area and I don't even remember an airport being close (I could be wrong). I suspect it might have been somewhere between Birmingham and Leeds. I think these spinning RADAR dishes are fairly rare, right? Usually they're positioned at some airbase or airport, but this one was just chilling all by itself. I've searched extensively through navaids lists looking at each location on a map and none look like spinning RADARS or road layouts I remember.
My local NDB is the only thing I can hear on my radio's LW band, but it's cool to listen to. Back when I took flying lessons my instructor showed me how to tune the comnav radio in to NDB's and listen to the morse code over the headphones. From up in the air they come in pretty loud and clear. Also, he showed me that the radio would tune up into the MW band so you could listen to the local sports radio station while flying lol.
Even though the NDB antenna is vertically polarised, for navigation purposes the direction finding receivers have two antennae, a verically polarised receive antenna to detect the E field and a horizontally polarised antenna to detect the H field (magnetic field of the EM wave). The E and H fields are obviously 90° phase shifted from one another so the signals can be phase shifted electronically to produce a null point in the same way as DF systems used to physically rotate the antenna to find the direction of illegal radio transmissions on the roof of WW2 detector wagons. As for aviation navigation, ADF can suffer from coastal refraction where the propogation of the wave crosses from over water to over land and additionally near sunrise and sunset...if anyone's interested? 😊
From a pilot’s perspective, NDBs are horrible. There was one, I am not sure if it is still there, at a small UK airport used primarily for training and if a train happened to pass on a nearby railway line as you were making an approach, you would commonly see the aircraft’s pointer needle violently shoot off towards the train. Beautiful video and the colours and weather match the music perfectly. Thank you Lewis.
The the aircraft version of Google Maps trying send you into a river 😨😅
Very cool! Reminds me of when did my instrument rating in the mid-90s and had to fly an NDB approach. I remember my examiner was questioning whether I double checked the Morse code identifier, and I said, I already know Morris code by heart. He asked if I was a ham, and I said yes. He then proceeded to tell me he was one too and we had a great rest of the flight! Needless to say, I passed!
It's a bit freaky knowing somewhere automated transmitters just beeping into the airwaves non-stop completely unattended. 😨
You get me!
When a teenager, I had an old valve radio that brought in some beacons right at the bottom end of the long wave band. They identified with three morse letters. I wonder if these were marine beacons rather than NDBs?
Great video, pictures, interesting explanations and nice music.
You gave me the will to buy an RTL-SDR USB key and start playing around and listening to things I was not even aware of,
and I only watched 3 of your videos yet. Despite knowing nothing, I already enjoy this.
If I'll hear some morse code, this evening or in 10 years, I will remember this video!
Morse code can also be heard on most of the amateur radio bands. There are also channel markers which broadcast their idents in morse.
You'll need something better than an RTL-SDR to get down to these frequencies. I saved up to get an Airspy Discovery and it's the best, in my price range, that I've found for the lower frequencies. Having a big antenna and a good ground are also really important. I bind together cheap 8ft bamboo poles from a garden centre and stick copper wire to them. the wire doesn't have to be too fancy. I use 1mm enamelled wire, but 0.5mm works well too. My tallest is around 10m, leaning on a leylandii tree. I use a cheap electrical earth rod close to the base of the antenna. Then I use cheap TV coax to the receiver. Best of luck!
@@apc108 thanks for the advice, appreciated. I'll look forward buying this airspy device if I want to get down. I still need to figure out many things about RF and don't feel constrained by my cheap USB receiver yet :)
Once again, brilliant, Lewis! I So wonderfully covered. Since living in the US, I've lamented the 'demise' of LW broadcasting. Not that it was ever really huge here, but now there's almost nothing. The irony is that I now live in a remote area of New England with a gleefully low QRM levels, yet on some of those lower freqs there's little RX (or DX) potential, at least most of the time. Cheers!
My high school (50 years ago) had a shed sized transmitter bld and a small antenna structure, no name nothing but a warning about tresspassing and high voltage, we lived in a heavilily military area with all manner of military and cold war communications sites, as well as an air force base, just as you mentioned at some poimt the transmitter site disappeared no doubt replaced or obsoleted by newer technology.
About 25 years ago, I worked at a combo AM/FM station here in the US, our AM station was used as a NDB for a local airport.
As a 7/8year old I would listen to the LIC beacon on the LW band (Litchfield). Always facinated by it's eerie sound, but having no idea what it was for years.
Nice clip from the TU-154 pilot - great aircraft, could use rough grass airstrips and way overpowered, climbed like a scalded cat.
I'm sorry wasn't the "french" NDB HR at 3:05 actually HW in Hannover, Germany? I hear " dit dit dit break dit dah dah".
I actually have an old NDB transmitter and tuner here. The plan was to use it as a beacon for the 630 meter amateur band. It was a simple conversion however the signal being AM CW exceeds the allocated bandwidth of the 630 meter band. Back to the drawing board....... Thanks for sharing !
I first heard my local airport's NDB in the mid 90s on a Wards Airline portable that I picked up at the local flea market. It was a D-Cell hog so I powered with a 12v SLA. For a few years it was a mystery to me. I initially assumed it had something to do with communications from a nearby military base. I finally figured out it was about 2.5 miles from home when I drove by the transmitter site, which was also a compelling mystery to me, while listening to an AM broadcast just 2KHz up from it's 2nd harmonic. I logged 8 or 10 on the Wards and later added maybe 10 or 15 more with a Drake R8. I might still have the log sheet somewhere. I think the most amusing thing was that beneath the ID of my local NDB I could hear another with the same power, 25w, about 250 miles (400km) away. These days I don't hear any.
The nearby beacons are received by ground wave - which can stretch for a fair distance at these LF frequencies. Ground wave propagation is very much proportional to transmitter output power, unlike a signal propagated by ionospheric skip. Curiously, here in south-east London/Bermondsey, the only NDB that I can receive on an indoor whip aerial (and outside on my car's short, base loaded whip) is the Rickmansworth NDB c/sign CHT, 277kHz, 25 watts at a range of 32km. I really don't know why the NDBs at Gatwick and City airports as well as general aviation airstrips like Headcorn, Kent are inaudible here at home when they really should be heard. CHT is a strong signal here during darkness hours [*] and even, weakly during the day. I had wondered whether the terrain offered a line-of-sight pathway but this doesn't seem to be the case. What could explain this?
[*] This night effect is due to reduced atmospheric ionisation (and hence background noise) and nothing to do with skip propagation. However other signals will skip, leading to much more interference from SW/HF distant station overloading the receiver front-end as well as 'image' reception.
I might have watched around 10 videos from this channel over the last few months, and just realized, that I had yet to subscribe and ring the bell; which I then proceeded to do.
At 3:08 I think it is HW, not HR. 73
Correct
Hi. I bought a thunderpole tx hand held and every day around 2pm on channel 6 RD am I hear Americans talking they can’t hear me but I hear them I’m in London and I’m using the rubber duck that came with it but I bought a mag mount and I have it stuck on my radiator right by my window I also hear other foreign language on other am channel’s. I would love to see it all take of again like it was in the 70s and 80s. Anyway love your channel bro keep up the good work. Take care. Garty.
I'm a simple man. I see Lewis posts, I watch it.
Here in Pittsburgh atop the Grant Building, there is an aerial beacon in operation since 1929 that flashes out "Pittsburgh" in morse code.
Great as usual Lewis. As an avid NDB DXer this was fun. Its disheartening to hear even stalwarts I heard often now off the air, but alas technology moves on. At least I have my logs and recordings to remember.
For the aircraft side the ADF system (Automatic direction finder). The pilot selects the frequency of the station and the ADF equipment figures out how far away you are and if you are going towards or away from the signal.
I remember picking one up on the MW in 1979, it used to spell out LAM. I was 12 at the time and didn't know what it was until I wrote to the BBC to find out. I received a letter telling me what it was and that it was for aircraft approaching Heathrow.. I think. I have the letter somewhere where it also mentioned the frequency, which I can't remember. I'll have to try and find it.
I still remember the morse code in my head to this day.
I remember, when I was growing up in the 1960s, my local airport had an NDB that I could receive on my AM radio. It was at the very high end of the band, as I recall, like around 1730 kHz or thereabouts. I lived in (and have returned to) Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, and back 50 to 60 years ago, the local airport was called Bloomington Municipal International (I think), with the radio beacon call sign of BMI. What I heard was a repeating Morse code for B M I , followed by a male voice saying "Bloomington, BMI." I haven't heard it since the 1970s, but by the same token, I only recently moved back here, and in this day and age I don't actually have an AM radio receiver at my disposal to check it out for current status. I love your content, BTW!
It looks like it's not there anymore. The only beacon I could find in the immediate vicinity of BMI is an outer marker locator on the runway 20 ILS approach. Its frequency is 334 kHz and its identifier is LH.
Fascinating as ever :-)
I've heard a fair few of these beacons at nite when QRM allows the band between 280 and 415 khz is full of them. There used to be a maritime beacon on portland bill lighthouse long gone now but I remember hearing its auto ATU struggling to keep it tuned as the fog came in
There was one at Barton, I remember using it as part of my IFR training.
some can be herd in the US . just a simple system. bacons are used in HAM radio to check band conditions . same CW with just a call sign. low power transmission. great video of some of the transmitter cites. even at low power the RF voltage can be quite high and can be deadly. why the signs . less than a 1/4 wave. the antenna impendence goes up. and so does the RF voltage. 73's
Great vid as always mate keep them coming.
NDBs - we had a few of them receivable in the mid 70s. One would spell out in Morse "BBL" and teenage me would wonder what it meant. I think it wad from Boundary Bay airport.
The morse code at 3:10 is the callsign HW, nor HR. Maybe NDB from Hannover?
Aircraft ADF Receivers were the first products I worked on at Collins Radio. ADF-650A and ADF-60A/B. More recently (last 20 years or so) the NAV-4000 line included the ADF function. There was an ADF-4000, but few were ever produced. The '4000 units included Differential GPS data output. I doubt very many aircraft actually used this.
Some units included up in the Marine MF band for US Coast Guard aircraft that might search on 2182 kHz. Those are really rare. The antennas were crossed loop designs specific to the radio.
Some US coastal ports included an NDB transmitter with differential GPS, but I think they are all gone now too. Alaska was the last hold out. Port Canaveral was the last I heard with ASCII DGPS data on the NDB signal.
Airline pilots told me the only thing they used it for was listening to ball games on AM Radio.
Thank you for documenting the radio world.
At 2:46, the BOT translation is correct for the sound played.
But, the screen has _. (N) captioned where only _ (T) is heard.
Still, listening to soft faint code with a faraway hiss behind is very relaxing.
Düsseldorf isn‘t far away where I live (200km) there are still some US military bases in Dülmen und Mönchengladbach
As a kid we had a Sony HiFi tuner that went up to 350kHz on the LW band. It would pick up a few NDBs, but the strongest by far was OLD.
My local flamethrower locater-outer marker FN was silenced just a couple of years ago after occupying 400 kHz and being in the way of DXers all over the Western US. The structure still stands, unmodified, like they could turn it on again. The ground underneath it must be so conductive!
Urrrgh, this reminded me of my ADF training when I trained to get my fixed wing PPL. VOR/DME is more straightforward because it offers references for heading and distance. ADF only tells you a direction and you have to figure out the other references on the fly. Easy now but took a while go get my head around. Its useless if a storm cell is nearby ADF are attracted to them!!
I can hear these here in Victoria Australia. Very very weak but they are there. All my receivers are deaf to them expect my icr9000 it can just hear them. Even the ic7300 can’t hear them.
So remember tuning into these when I was a kid Had to go to the library to find out what they were, or ask a local ham ofr aircraft enthusiast, X rooby
Something I always like to think is that beacons will be some of the last remnants of humanity, beeping away until the world ends
LBA hasn't lost it's NDB on 406kHz YET. Good video as always Lewis!
3:10 we hear HW rather than HR?
You’re right, typo
Radio is crazy
Excellent video and information.
Used to hear Lichfield LIC all the time because you could receive it on any MW radio. 545khz maybe?
You have it backwards. The common IF frequencies (455, 465 kz, etc) are religiously avoided by the beacon stations (and the frequency assigners) due to the likely hood of interference.
For an aviator an ndb is very “directional” - the arrow on the ADF points at it. Sometimes distant lightnings make the arrow deviate momentarily. I’m yet to hear an ndb transmitting ATIS or volmet (doesn’t exist here in France).
Yes but that’s the aircraft doing the work. The NDB itself provides no directional information at all. It’s simply an omnidirectional beacon
CHT is one of my local NDBs. It’s the only bit of Morse I can send on the car horn 🤣. Did you not do a NDB video previously?
CDF (Cardiff) on 388.5 kHz and BRI ( Bristol) on 414 kHz are still active.
Interesting! Learned something new. Keep up the good work!
I don’t think any other invention has had such a profound impact on civilization ‘ever’ in history. Maybe the 3-volt transistor making microelectronics possible. Thanks Lewis. Tom.
Thankyou Lewis., another interesting video.
New sub, but been watching for ages. Strangely hypnotic content.
Off topic, but if anyone knows, it will be this audience.
I've had several inexpensive DAB radios, and noticed that if I touch the ariel whilst they are I'm operation, it feels like an electric shock, or current, or vibration.
They have all done this.
Can't find an explanation despite Google g it several times.
If anyone knows would welcome the information.
Many thanks
There's no difference (as far as the RF stage is concerned) between a VHF DAB+ and a VHF FM radio.
So there's no sensible reason, except that the power-supply in a lot of cheap radios can have a rather high leakage current (which can cause shocks). Especially Eu and Jap radios when used in the USA without a properly Earthed power outlet.
Note also that there is a different DRM on MW/SW v/s VHF, so is difficult to know which you refer to.
When I was a kid I used to pick up some of these commercial beacons on shortwave, they would send a CQ once followed by a 3 letter callsign and then the letter K (finished) and repeat about every 5 seconds. They had strong signals though.
Probably maritime station markers. There are still a few around. Usually military though there is an old and very persistent commercial maritime costal station on HF from South Korea. You’ll hear it all over and I have heard it clearly here in Aus in somewhere north of 22MHz. Surprisingly there has been some reported traffic on CW though I have never heard any myself
I use websdr, because I struggle with qrm when listening to shortwave radio so I might have to try tuning for them.
Great vidéo, 73 ! On 03:07 It's HW, not HR
Time to listen to these NDBs before they all go away.
Hearing these is more of a ground wave thing than sky wave. There's a facebook group dedicated to Long Wave DXing, mostly focused around both the still extant LW radio stations in Europe but also for NDBs which is the only thing people in North America can generally pick up on Long Wave. Unfortunately it looks like that's going to be the case in Europe within a few years.
When I need to hear an NDB in an airplane, I really need to hear an NDB. I have never been able to hear or track one as you show. Usually about 35 to 50 miles is when I can expect to receive them in the airplane.
So many pilots have grown to solely rely upon GPS, and I think they are making a big mistake. We have lost LORAN. I still think turning LORAN off was a very bad idea, when it comes to jamming. The very very short wave navigation systems we use are so vulnerable to sabotage.
I still use the NDB as a navigational resource in my daily life, thankyou for your timely article.
Here in the USA, NDBs are all but gone. In all of California we only have 2 left, with both planned to be removed when they fail for some reason.
Been meaning to suggest at visit to WHI for your brilliant portfolio, you beat me to it. Thanks
Used to pick up SFD on normal vhf broadcast band.
As soon as I heard the morse code with two letters at this slow speed I was like that sounds like an NDB?
I have a low power beacon I'm setting up I forget where it transmits but love the lp stuff.
Thanks Again RM. Super Stuff**** Radio On*****
Can anyone help me with a radio issue? Ever since the Bilsdale mast fire, Harrogate has really rubbish radio signal. I did wonder if my car at the time just had a rubbish aerial, despite the car being brand new, but I’ve since changed vehicles and yet still - despite the mast being replaced, every time I drive across town, almost every station drops out every few seconds. I thought it was a DAB issue but the same happens on regular FM. Is there anything I can do?
Both DAB+ and normal VHF FM signals will suffer dropouts unless you are in a strong signal area.
Before AM MW was closed down, it gave a far better signal in difficult areas.
You could try fitting a better FM antenna, eg longer whip, active pre-amp, gutter mount. Most cars these days try to use a crappy antenna which doubles as the heating element in the window glass..
Another thing the airplane ADF can offer is an rather poor Lighting detector. Tune it for a rather high offering. and it will point toward a strike. drive away from the direction the needle points. So far I am still alive, so I guess it works reasonably well.
I hate to be that guy, but the Morse you captured for Hericourt sounds more like HW. The last element is a dash. 3:07
Hericourt HR actually seems to send HW (.... / .--) not HR (.... / .-.) from what can be heard on the recording. Ist this is he right audio?
Thanks Lewis
A question for someone way smarter than me regarding the removal of these backup localized systems. What happens to global trade and navigation when if China, seeing the US is sending military aid and support to Ukraine & Israel, decides it really wants to invade Taiwan and 'untie China under the one China policy'. I'm venturing a guess that one of Winnie The Pooh will first acts of aggression will be to strike satellite based NATO Link 16 command & control systems. The system they would most likely use would be airplane launched anti-sat missiles and a strike like that would cause a huge debris field in space that could take days, weeks, months or even years to clear. Satellites aren't armored so they can't fly through such debris so, good bye GPS. I'd just like to know what the plan is in case some nation wants to start attacking mil-C2 systems and we have no backups because it saved a few thousand from the budget.
Online SDRs are less fun. It's true, but I'm microwave the popcorn to read the dissenting opinions. They should be hilarious 😅
Now I know what I was listening to... ahhhhhhh
Wait, where's the tinfoil hat affiliate link? I was really looking forward to one of those, lol.
When I was a kid i heard morse code through a old Hi-Fi stereo (i cant remember what tuner it was using but it was a very old unit) the morse code was -.. .. -.-.
growing up i never knew it was morse code but always wondered what it was. I later learned it was D I C. Given that they use 3 letters could this have been what i heard? if not is there another explenation (maybe other than someone trying to transmit profanity). Would be great to hear back about this if you could provide any information.
If you look up the list of NDB transmitters in your area, you'll see an entry for DIC and what frequency It's on.
Better much better than potted histories. Cheers.
i heared that morse ages ago .. still wonder.. if somebody does manicure ?
Could someone provide sample frequency please
What do you mean the Earth isn't flat Lewis ? ! OMG I think all this crazy radio stuff has gone to your head lol.
Lewis, what is the music at the end? I can’t seem to get a match on Shazam.
It’s called stranger things, it’s in the TH-cam audio library
At 00:18 in this video:
I have seen an online image of an electrical control box with a warning sign on it. I do not know if the sign was REAL or PHOTOSHOPPED, but it said something like:
*"NOT ONLY WILL THIS BOX KILL YOU, IT WILL HURT THE ENTIRE TIME YOU ARE DYING."* 🤭
The TH-camr AVE has stickers like that for sale.
Mind if sample this for hardbass?
Dam i really fort the earth was flat haha, Great video as always buddy 👌