Project E.L.F. - The history of communicating with submarines underwater - #HamRadioQA
Published at : 23 Dec 2025
Nestled deep in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in Northwest Wisconsin is the small town of Clam Lake. Clam Lake is best known for the excellent hunting and fishing in the area, and of course the herd of elk that roam the countryside. But the elk population is more of a side effect of what I’m going to talk about today. At one time this area was home to a military base and in fact, world war three could have been signaled from its location. I’m talking about Project ELF, the Navy’s program to send messages to submarines deep under water. Let’s explore Project ELF, a cold war relic that still has an impact today.
Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 01:00 Communicating with Submarines VLF/ELF 03:00 Geology makes the difference 03:34 Wisconsin Test Facility 04:26 Opposition to Project Sanguine 05:06 Cold War Rebirth 06:18 Minimun Shift Keying: MSK 06:57 Antenna transmission system 07:35 Taos Hum 08:09 End of Project ELF 10:02 Visiting the ELF Site in Clam Lake 15:51 Legacy of Project ELF 16:16 Conclusion and credits
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