Vakkotaur

The Ashland, Wisconsin Daily Press has a story about the Navy ending operation of the Extremely Low Frequency transmitters in northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. The transmitters were protested by some from the beginning. Some said that it made nuclear war (the ELF transmitters were used to transmit to submerged submarines) more likely. Others claimed there were possible biological effects of the ELF waves.

The Navy now has several VLF (Very Low Frequency - a bit higher frequency than ELF) transmitters and plans to use those instead. The protests didn't have any significant effect - being superseded had an effect. Nevertheless, protest groups are claiming victory and looking rather silly in so doing.

The funniest part is that some see this as a big win for the health effects reasons. ELF transmitted on 76 Hertz, last I heard. I don't know at what power level, but even supposing a few million Watts, there's something curious about it all. There is a much bigger "transmitter" not far away in the spectrum: The power grid, which has "antennas" all across the country and billions (<Sagan>and billions</Sagan>) of Watts at 60 Hertz.