Secret Transmitter

CartLegger: 20th Nov 2008 - 22:18 GMT

OK, I'll bite. But I'll also cheat and use the words of Daniella Romano, head archivist for the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

BLDG 1/291, Material Laboratory, Substation 27
Construction: 01/01/1940

##"The last active Naval building at the yard, BLDG 1/291 was originally part of the “Material Science Laboratories” and in it were many rooms used for various equipment tests. There was a cold room, and a hot room to test equipment under extreme temperatures. There is a padded “soft” room, which may have served as an anechoic chamber for acoustical research. There were "RF (Radio Frequency) shielded rooms" to protect equipment highly sensitive to radio waves. There were also many radio transmitters in the building and corresponding antennas on the roof. There was also a guillotine or “drop” tower in the squared-off NE corner of the building. As the name implies, this was a 5-storey drop to test high velocity collisions.
In 1961, the building became the United States Naval Applied Science Laboratory. As the 3rd naval District was consolidated, headquarters at 90 Church Street closed and Command shifted to BLDG 1. With its purchase by Steiner Studios, it will soon be known as '25 Washington Ave', and be a location for a film post production facility "##

As you can see, there is nary a word on the secret transmitter. We've talked about it, but you know, its secret and all. The 3rd Naval district stretched all the way to Puerto Rico, so it musta been pretty strong. Really I don't know much, and will have to do more research on this topic.

Its only one of the many stories that emerge from the little known crevices of the Navy Yard. Hope ya'll can make it in sometime with me on a tour!

Alan: 20th Nov 2008 - 22:54 GMT

It looks like a primitive VLF or ULF antenna to me -- at one time such low frequencies were used to communicate with submarines under shallow water, and the Earth's own magnetosphere emits in those bands making them of interest to physicists.

Peter: 21st Nov 2008 - 00:42 GMT

lol cartlegger: thats why i told you it reminded me of spies like us when i was last there ;)

today, i spoke to a navy veteran who was stationed on one of the last few naval ships to go through there, ca. 1985. he claims its a ULF side-band transceiver used for submarine communications, which i (as well as alan) pretty well guessed...

as a side note, he mentioned that his only daughter was conceived on the ship the last night it was berthed in the navy yard, hehehe...

but no hard facts yet. what i posted above i mostly culled from www.virhistory.com/navy/commsta.htm... know of any other good public resources?