[PA7MDJ] The Quest for HAARP

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PA7MDJ Amateur Radio Blog

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The Quest for HAARP

Posted: 29 Jan 2018 10:50 AM PST
http://pa7mdj.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-quest-for-haarp-open-letter-to.html

Last edited: 28.01.2018

The HAARP research facility in Gakona, Alaska under the lights of the
Aurora borealis
As a radio hobbyist and space physics enthusiast I've always been highly
fascinated by the HAARP research facility. HAARP stands for High Frequency
Active Auroral Research Program. The facility is owned and operated by the
University of Alaska Fairbanks and is located in Gakona, Alaska.
The most prominent instrument of the HAARP research facility is the so
called "ionospheric heater", a huge array of transmitters and antennas
(capable of transmitting up to a power of 4 GW ERP) with which temporarily
a limited area of the ionosphere can be excited or "heated". For more
technical, scientific, and historical information on HAARP I would like to
refer you to the internet; a search on Google will give you plenty of hits.
You'll also find a list of selected links below, and you might like to read
my previous blog entry about HAARP here.

Already in early 1997 the first amateur-radio dedicated test of the then
brand new HAARP facility (then still a US Military facility) was announced.
The ARRL issued special bulletin ARLX005 which read as follows:

--- SB SPCL @ ARL $ARLX005
ARLX005 HAARP to air test transmission for hams

ZCZC AX05
QST de W1AW
Special Bulletin 5 ARLX005
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT February 21, 1997
To all radio amateurs

SB SPCL ARL ARLX005
ARLX005 HAARP to air test transmission for hams

The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) facility
in Gakona, Alaska, will transmit a test signal on March 8, 1997,
seeking reports from hams and SWLs in Alaska and in the ''Lower 48''
to determine how well the HAARP transmissions can be heard to the
south.

During this test, the HAARP facility will transmit on or near the
frequencies 3.4 MHz and 6.99 MHz to give listeners the opportunity
to listen for the HAARP facility and to claim a QSL card. The test
will be conducted beginning at 0430 UTC on March 8 (2330 Eastern
Time on March 7).

The format of the test will be to transmit a constant carrier (no
modulation) signal followed by a CW message at 10 WPM, according to
the following schedule:

TIME FREQ SIGNAL ANTENNA POSITION

0430 6.99 MHz Carrier only Pointed up
0435 6.99 MHz CW message Pointed up
0440 6.99 MHz Carrier only Pointed to SE
0445 6.99 MHz CW message Pointed to SE
0450 3.4 MHz Carrier only Pointed up
0455 3.4 MHz CW message Pointed up

The transmission beginning at 0450 is primarily for Alaskan hams.
Reception reports should include signal strength during the constant
carrier transmission period along with the text of the CW message.

Complete details on this test and a QSL address will be listed on
the HAARP home page at
http://server5550.itd.nrl.navy.mil/announce.html.

The HAARP facility--now in the developmental prototype stage--has
been undergoing testing since it was completed in late 1994.
Multiple transmitters feed multiple antenna elements (there are 48
antenna elements on the site, arranged in eight rows of six columns;
however, at this time, only 18 elements are active. The test will
use 17 antennas with a net transmitter power of 340 kW). The final
configuration could have 180 antenna elements and a combined
transmitter power of 3.6 MW. HAARP's stated scientific purpose is to
study ''the properties and behavior of the ionosphere, with
particular emphasis on being able to understand and use it to
enhance communications and surveillance systems for both civilian
and defense purposes.'' HAARP is managed by the US Air Force and the
US Navy.

For more information, see ''The High Frequency Active Auroral
Research Program'' (QST, Sep 1996, p 33), or check out the HAARP home
page, http://server5550.itd.nrl.navy.mil/haarp.html.
NNNN
/EX
---
In those days I was a keen SWL, and I remember the announcements, but for
some reason I missed the actual test. I believe at the time I was busy
preparing for travelling to, or was already travelling in, northern
Scandinavia, which might explain things. Or did the announcements reach me
too late? I can't remember clearly. I can't recall either ever having read
or heard anything about the test being successful or not.

To my knowledge no other special amateur-radio dedicated tests were
conducted thereafter (please correct me if I'm wrong). Then the US Air
Force in 2014 announced that the facility would be completely closed down
and HAARP went silent for good.
Or so was thought! The facility was taken over by the University of Alaska
Fairbanks, and in February and September of 2017 HAARP was again heating up
the ionosphere. Since the equipment of the facility had not been used for a
couple of years, it was decided to go easy on the generators and
transmitters, and the ionospheric heater was used at only a part of its
full capacity, both antenna and power wise.




Excellent article on HAARP in the October 1996 issue of the legendary
Monitoring Times magazine. Great article debunking the early myths and
conspiracy theories about HAARP. MT magazine from the collection of PA7MDJ.
The campaigns at HAARP in 2017 were primarily scientific research projects
of course, but they had a ham radio flavour to it!
The ionospheric research campaigns done in 2017 were led by Assistant
research professor Chris Fallen of the University of Alaska Fairbanks
Geophysical Institute. And Chris Fallen also happens to be radio amateur
KL3WX! Chris announced the tests on his website and on his Twitter account,
and radio amateurs and shortwave listeners were asked to participate by
monitoring for the HAARP signals. During the actual campaigns, Chris
announced on and off times, frequencies, and mode on his Twitter account,
helping radio hobbyists to tune in to the signals, and feedback was given
to reports and questions from listeners.
The signals mainly consisted of unmodulated carriers or carrier pulses, but
during the September 2017 campaign especially for the radio amateurs and
SWLs listening in, also some SSTV images were transmitted! Also some AM
transmissions were done with tones and musical tunes to generate the
Luxembourg or cross-modulation effect. But both the SSTV and AM signals
were transmitted on lower frequencies and were difficult or impossible to
receive outside of North America.

During the February 2017 campaign I did not manage to receive the HAARP
signals. During the September 2017 campaign I again did not manage to pick
up the HAARP signals on the lower frequencies, but this time also a higher
frequency was used: 9.500 MHz. And this higher frequency proved to be
suitable to propagate the unmodulated carrier of the HAARP experiments to
me in the Netherlands several times. I used my Yaesu FT-991 transceiver and
a HyEndFed 10/20/40 wire antenna to pick up the signals.

On 9.500 MHz I do have a lot of interference from PLC devices, and at times
there was also some interference from broadcast stations on nearby
frequencies. But by using a narrow digital filter of 300 to 50 Hz in CW
mode, wide enough for just an unmodulated carrier, much of this could be
eliminated. And nowadays we have the advantage of being able to detect
received carriers and make them visible with the computer and spectrum
analyzer software like for instance Spectran or Argo. And that's what I did.

I was surprised and still am by the choice of the higher frequency; 9.500
MHz is in the middle of the 31m broadcast band, and there's no way of
determining if the received carrier is from a weak broadcast station or
from HAARP except by watching closely for the on and off times of the
carrier, as these were announced by Chris Fallen on Twitter.

Only one time I was able to determine both the exact on and off time of the
received carrier, which enabled me to identify the signal with almost 100%
certainty as coming from HAARP. On September 24th, 2017 a carrier was
received starting at 0100 UTC and ending at 0200 UTC, exactly as announced
by Chris Fallen on his Twitter account.

I checked this website
https://www.shortwaveschedule.com/index.php?freq=9500 for the schedules of
broadcast stations on 9.500 MHz. Only one station was transmitting on this
frequency during the time of reception and that is China National Radio 1.
But this station broadcasts continuously from 1825 to 0600 UTC and does not
have a sign-on and sign-off time of respectively 0100 and 0200 hours UTC.

But still the on and off times exactly at the hour are of course common for
broadcast stations, and there's always a slight chance that the carrier was
originating from some broadcast station that no schedule is known of. To be
really sure an odd on or off time of for instance a couple of minutes after
the hour would have been helpful. At one occasion when I was able to detect
the carrier an odd off time was announced but unfortunately the carrier had
faded out by the time it was turned off. Also if the carrier would have
been pulsed there wouldn't have been any doubt left, but I did not receive
any of the pulsed carrier transmissions.

Furthermore, I'd like to note that at times the carrier was strong enough
to actually be audible through the speaker of my transceiver, beside also
being detected in Spectran.

Carrier detected on 9.500MHz with Spectran with on time of 0100 UTC
(Spectran shows local time UTC+2). My receiver's CW sidetone pitch is set
to 880 Hz, explaining the frequency of the carrier in the screenshot. The
ticks are placed at one second intervals.
The same carrier with off time 0200 UTC
I know the campaigns at HAARP are primarily scientific research
experiments, but from an amateur radio point of view I would like to be so
free to make some suggestions, or requests as you will, to Assistant
research professor Chris Fallen for future HAARP campaigns. In case of
implementation these suggestions will not directly add scientific value but
might cater to the radio amateur, and in particular the ones at DX
locations. This is the point where I'd like to consider this blog entry
doubling as an open letter to Assistant research prof. Chris Fallen.

1. The higher frequency of 9.500 MHz proved to be suitable for easy
worldwide reception of the HAARP transmissions, but in the future could
maybe a frequency be chosen in the same range but outside of the 31m
broadcast band, for instance 9.300 MHz?

2. Is there a possibility to have HAARP transmitting WSPR signals, or even
better JT9 (as in JT9 a free-text message can be transmitted; in WSPR
you'll have to transmit a callsign)? WSPR or JT9 would enable radio
amateurs to pick up and identify the signals up to a signal to noise ratio
of about -30 dB. So even extremely weak signals will be detected. If
desired, announce a WSPR or JT9 test to the weak signal community, and
you'll have a huge audience worldwide. WSPR and JT9 are FSK type emissions
and possibly might be generated by the HAARP computers/software that drive
the transmitters.

3. In order to make identification easier, could some intelligence be added
to the continuous unmodulated carrier of each transmission, like for
instance a morse code identification? QRSS (very slow CW) could be used
with a "dit" length of for instance 6 seconds. Even when the signal is
inaudible, with for instance Argo a QRSS morse code identifier could still
be made visible. Argo is already widely used by hams and SWLs listening for
HAARP.
The SSTV was very nice, but is useless when the signals are weak, or at the
low frequencies that were used aren't present at all, like at my station in
the Netherlands.

Last but not least I'd like to thank Assistant research prof. Chris Fallen
for giving hams and SWLs the opportunity to participate in the fascinating
research done at HAARP. I'm looking forward to the next research campaign!


See also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Frequency_Active_Auroral_Research_Program
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionospheric_heater
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/haarp
http://www.arrl.org/news/alaska-s-haarp-facility-once-again-open-for-business
https://twitter.com/UAFGI
https://twitter.com/uafhaarp
https://twitter.com/ctfallen