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Johnm35
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Not sure if this is the right place to post, but I am wondering, can this VLF station melt metal (details below post)?
I recently did a scuba dive with a company in exmouth, WA, who provided some info on this station. They had been told that the control room is made entirely of wood, and even had a wooden bolt provided by someone who allegedly worked there to prove it. They had been told that it had to be all wood as any metal would melt in the control room due to the high power of the radio tower. Apparently a hammer had been left in the room once and the next day it was melted..
this seemed a little odd, firstly I didn’t think radio waves would generate such heat when near metal, also how does any of the systems run in there with no metal for conducting electricity? Also if a metal hammer melted it would have been super hot, and likely burned the wooden room... and why doesn’t the tower melt? Or the fence? I think the dive company may have been told a good sounding story unfortunately that lacks facts. Thanks for any help you can provide!
From wiki: Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt is located on the northwest coast of Australia, 6 kilometres (4 mi) north of the town of Exmouth, Western Australia. The town of Exmouth was built at the same time as the communications station to provide support to the base and to house dependent families of U.S. Navy personnel.
The station provides very low frequency (VLF) radio transmission to United States Navy and Royal Australian Navy ships and submarines in the western Pacific Ocean and eastern Indian Ocean. The frequency is 19.8 kHz. With a transmission power of 1 megawatt, it is the most powerful transmission station in the Southern Hemisphere.[1]
I recently did a scuba dive with a company in exmouth, WA, who provided some info on this station. They had been told that the control room is made entirely of wood, and even had a wooden bolt provided by someone who allegedly worked there to prove it. They had been told that it had to be all wood as any metal would melt in the control room due to the high power of the radio tower. Apparently a hammer had been left in the room once and the next day it was melted..
this seemed a little odd, firstly I didn’t think radio waves would generate such heat when near metal, also how does any of the systems run in there with no metal for conducting electricity? Also if a metal hammer melted it would have been super hot, and likely burned the wooden room... and why doesn’t the tower melt? Or the fence? I think the dive company may have been told a good sounding story unfortunately that lacks facts. Thanks for any help you can provide!
From wiki: Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt is located on the northwest coast of Australia, 6 kilometres (4 mi) north of the town of Exmouth, Western Australia. The town of Exmouth was built at the same time as the communications station to provide support to the base and to house dependent families of U.S. Navy personnel.
The station provides very low frequency (VLF) radio transmission to United States Navy and Royal Australian Navy ships and submarines in the western Pacific Ocean and eastern Indian Ocean. The frequency is 19.8 kHz. With a transmission power of 1 megawatt, it is the most powerful transmission station in the Southern Hemisphere.[1]
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