Topband: Long Delayed Echoes

[Donald Chester]

>At least it keeps people busy, including the most likely
>source of the "long echo" who probably is so busy rolling
>around laughing he doesn't have time for more sinister
>mischief. I remember the antics of a certain WB8 who
>recorded, edited, and replayed a certain few Hams he enjoyed
>having fun with. He spent hours in his basement drinking
>pots of coffee while editing tapes. I'd hate to see him
>today with a digital recording or VCR capable of doing a
>good HF recording and playback!

I have seen demonstrations at hamfests of equipment than can record a 
portion of the band on VHS tape and play it back so that the recorded 
signals throughout the segment can actually be tuned in normal fashion on a 
receiver.  I'm not sure how they keep the frequency stable and precise, 
however, so the playback may be off the original frequency unless they use a 
precise frequency reference to control the tape speed.

LDE's could easily be generated using this equipment.  All the prankster 
would need would be good rfi proofing in the recording equipment and a 
high-gain "leenyar."

I recall reading stories of LDE's in old QST's dating back to the late 20's 
or early 30's.  The controversy has been around for a long time and is still 
unexplained.  If I recall correctly, the old articles mentioned delays of 
less than one minute, still far too long for the signal to circle the globe 
one time.

They had crude recording technology in those days and the equimpment was 
bulky and expensive, so if it was a hoaxter he would most likely have had to 
copy the text by hand and manually resend it.

Don k4kyv